Shakespeare’s furiously paced comedy will be staged in a contemporary world into which walk three prohibited foreigners who see everything for the first time.
Two sets of twins separated at birth collide in the same city without meeting for one crazy day, as multiple mistaken identities lead to confusion on a grand scale. And for no one more so than Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant Dromio who, in search of their brothers, arrive in a land entirely foreign to their distant home. A buzzing metropolis, to the outsiders it appears a place of wonderment and terror, where baffling gifts and unexplained hostilities abound.
Consistently recognised by strangers, the visitors question their very selves as the turmoil escalates. Meanwhile, Aegeon, father to the Antipholus twins, has been captured searching for his sons and, as an illegal immigrant, is sentenced to death at sunset.
Dates: Opens 29 November 2011. Feb 3,4,10,11,13,14,21,22,23,27,28,29,Mar 8,10,12,13,20,21,23,24,30,31 at 19:30. Feb 6,Mar 9,22, at 18:00. Feb 4,11,14,22,Mar 10,21,24,31 Mats 14:00. Feb 5,12,Mar 11,25,Apr 1 Mats 15:00 11 March 2012 15:00 - Open Captioned (STAGETEXT)
Dominic Cooke's new production of The Comedy of Errors opened to critics last night (29 November, previews from 22 November) in the NT Olivier, starring Lenny Henry in his second major Shakespearean role in as many years (following Othello).
Henry and Chris Jarman play the Antipholus twins, with support from Lucian Msamati and Daniel Poyser as their twin servants. Designer Bunny Christie creates an urban, contemporary setting for Shakespeare's classic comedy of mistaken identities.
"Having cast Lenny Henry as the visiting Antipholus - and he’s more than equal to the challenge - Cooke and designer Bunny Christie throw so much noise and design at the show that the comedy of mistaken identity bends and buckles into one of not 'who’s who; but 'who cares who’s who?' As a sequel to Richard Bean’s Goldoni, a sort of 'Two Men, Two Guvnors,' it limps home a lame second ... There’s lots of busy 'action' in a pool hall and a beauty salon. None of this amounts to an innovative or fresh way of doing the play – it just isn’t charming, sexy or seductive ... Lenny of course mugs triumphantly through the brouhaha ... At least the tempo slows for the scene of revelation and reunion, presided over with silken dignity by Pamela Nomvete as a secular Abbess in carnival costume. There is at last a hint of the magical, enchanted quality of this play, but it’s far too late. Angelo ... is given some lovely strokes by Amit Shah, but this remains a persistently unfunny show ... There’s too much 'stuff' going on, and it’s significant that Lenny and Lucian get their biggest laughs when going into their voodoo hand signal routine, or rolling their eyes at the audience. Cooke wants to bring out the 'dark' side of Comedy. He forgot the contrast. And the ensemble farce playing is of secondary school standard."
"In Dominic Cooke’s savvy fast-moving modern-dress production ... there is a hurtling vigour about both play and production, and the mistaken identity routines and farcical chaos often prove a comic delight. Lenny Henry returns to Shakespeare after his big success a couple of years ago as Othello ... he once again impresses. He has tremendous stage presence and combines dazed confusion and moments of furious rage with a touching sense of wonder ... Cooke and his fine company achieve the transition from ribald humour to something deeper and truly heartfelt with grace. The production is greatly helped by the fact that Henry bears a plausible resemblance to Chris Jarman who plays his twin brother, though the latter largely lacks Henry’s instinctive comedic gifts. There is strong work too from Lucian Msamati and Daniel Poyser as the Dromio twins ... There’s a delightful performance too from Claudie Blakley ... a delightful comic turn. When it comes to great belly laughs Cooke’s production isn’t quite as irresistibly funny as the NT’s triumphant One Man, Two Guvnors. But it does memorably capture the sudden moments of poetry and deeper feeling that deepen Shakespeare’s most farcical play, hinting at dramatic and poetic glories to come."
"The end crowns all. For much of its length I found this production of Shakespeare's early masterpiece slightly strenuous fun as if its director, Dominic Cooke, on his National debut was determined to make use of all the theatre's resources. But in the last quarter-hour his production achieves a magical simplicity that induces a sense of awe and wonder ... there are times when Cooke's determination to create a massively detailed cityscape suffocates some of the play's mistaken-identity fun ... I accept that Shakespeare's play has the quality of a dream. But Cooke pushes too far the idea of the city as a source of fear and madness. Shakespeare's genius, however, has a way of asserting itself. And, just when I was beginning to pine for the visual restraint that directors like Clifford Williams and Tim Supple once brought to the play, this production achieves a beautiful serenity and calm ... even if I have seen funnier versions of the play, what this production captures vividly is that dreamlike sense of transformation that makes Shakespearean comedy unique. In The Comedy of Errors the characters exist in a world that is both realistically concrete and a house of illusion; and that duality is finally achieved in this Cooke's tour of a bewitched city."
"The face that dominates the poster for Dominic Cooke's almost excessively inventive modern-dress production is that of Lenny Henry, who is virtually a Shakespeare veteran now after his extraordinarily brave dive into the deep end with Othello. He's the big box-office draw here and he's wonderfully funny ... he's part of a fine ensemble that work hard to animate an over-cluttered concept and eventually drive the proceedings to a pleasing crescendo of comic mayhem ... I'm not sure that Cooke best prepares for this link by presenting the back story as a detailed re-enactment, replete with whirling helicopter rescue services, which erupts all over Bunny Christie's extraordinary, three-tier set ... Henry beautifully conveys the tragicomic plight of an innocent abroad ... He's great at the physical slapstick, but he also gives real emotional depth to the role ... In the final act, a production needs to show how the frantic incredulity provoked by farce shifts to the calm wonder stirred by romance. That doesn't quite happen here in a staging where the Abbess who officiates over the reunions becomes a therapist in the Abbey Clinic. Lurching from penthouses to knocking shops to Harley Street, this Comedy of Errors ends up sacrificing poetry to ingenious prose."
Libby Purves The Times ★★★
"While it is always a treat to see Lenny Henry doing comic outrage ... I have to say that the evening did not quite deliver the explosive pleasure which Shakespeare’s cunning comedy deserves. Not that Dominic Cooke’s production lacks panache: certainly it enjoys having the huge Olivier stage and a revolving Bunny Christie city to play with. Lenny Henry himself ... is well matched with Chris Jarman as twins separated in infancy, and their Dromios — Lucian Msamati and Daniel Poyser in identical Arsenal shirts — are immaculately alike. Credit to the wig-and-glasses department for that, but most to their skilfully mirrored body language. Indeed Cooke’s modern-urban production is full of sharp ideas ... What bothered me in the first half was the shortage of laughs, perhaps because of the selfconsciously ‘noir‘ inner-city setting and the initial starkness as heavies drag in the hooded, condemned Egeon (Joseph Mydell) ... But it sets a dark tone, and so does the early violence ... It gets much better, not least because the women are magnificently funny as Essex-blonde WAGs teetering on impossible heels. Adriana (Claudie Blakley) is nicely plaintive ... and Michelle Terry as Luciana deploys fabulous comic timing to haul in even more laughs than the star. The final reunions, particularly between Egeon and Pamela Nomvete’s psychiatrist Abbess, are as moving as ever."
"Lenny Henry ... is assured and engaging in this colourful production of a comedy frequently dismissed as slight. He revels in the exuberance of a piece that deals with the misadventures of two pairs of twins separated since childhood ... Cooke controls the ensemble deftly, and his interpretation is full of ingenious little dabs of colour ... Perhaps the most remarkable feature is Bunny Christie's design, conjuring a succession of locations in a style both atmospheric and witty ... The comedy is played broadly. There's a distinct air of pantomime as the emotional mishaps mingle with ghastly puns and gags about flatulence. Yet Cooke finds more pathos than is usual, and the conclusion is genuinely touching. Proceedings get off to an uncertain start, with some lumpy exposition. But they pick up after about 20 minutes. Henry is instrumental in this, combining appealingly with his servant (played with a lovely vitality by Lucian Msamati). His command of physical comedy is precise, and his tone suitably light. The support is a little uneven. But there's superb comic work from Michelle Terry and Claudie Blakley and a poignant turn by Pamela Nomvete ... Aside from a few sluggish first-half moments, this is a crowd-pleasing show that brings festive, risqué cheer to the National Theatre's largest space."
"The show is wall-to-wall joy and Mr Henry is beyond good ... The play opens with a tricky passage of exposition. Director Dominic Cooke avoids this time-honoured pothole by making exuberant use of high scaffolding and a mimed enactment of the story so far. Then Mr Henry arrives. In his opening scene he whacks his servant in the face with a metal tray – thwop! – and some urban cafe bystanders are splatted by custard pies ... Cooke’s ingenious take on the tale brings it into the modern day, with the two Dromios wearing identical Arsenal FC shirts ... Mr Henry’s technique in the fight scenes is a bit dodgy but he makes up for it with his energy, some rationed gurning and his stage presence. Not all members of the cast speak quite clearly enough but you are never in much doubt about the general drift of their words, thanks to the ceaseless visual spectacle and the sheer vim of the enterprise."
Dominic Cooke’s debut production at the National laboriously rescues Shakespeare’s fleet and funny farce from its “Boys from Syracuse” tradition of Mediterranean mayhem: we are in a rough inner city more like the port of Amsterdam than the coast of Ephesus.
There is nothing much wrong with this, but having cast Lenny Henry as the visiting Antipholus – and he’s more than equal to the challenge, — Cooke and designer Bunny Christie throw so much noise and design at the show that the comedy of mistaken identity bends and buckles into one of not “who’s who” but “who cares who’s who?”
As a sequel to Richard Bean’s Goldoni, a sort of “Two Men, Two Guvnors,” it limps home a lame second. The long expository speech of the arrested merchant, Egeon (Joseph Mydell), is made longer by ship wreck palaver, a ponderous mimed narrative of the birth of the two sets of twins, sudden microphoning, overwhelming sound effects, and a baby rescue team descending from helicopters. Bad start.
On shore, Lenny and his opposite number, the resident Antipholus (Chris Jarman), sport baggy purple suits and gangsta beards, while their respective servants, the Dromios (Lucian Msamati and Daniel Poyser) have identical Afro haircuts and Arsenal football shirts.
Adriana and her sister Luciana are played by Claudie Blakley and Michelle Terry as a pair of Essex girls in long (rather bad) blonde wigs, and the Phoenix where they live is a hideous modern apartment block. There’s lots of busy “action” in a pool hall and a beauty salon. None of this amounts to an innovative or fresh way of doing the play – it just isn’t charming, sexy or seductive, with the huge set swamping anything that might resemble light or nuanced acting.
Lenny of course mugs triumphantly through the brouhaha, but absolute chaos of the wrong sort ensues in the Dr Pinch (Paul Bentall) scene where the stage is invaded by an emergency ambulance spewing badly choreographed medical staff in white coats and more whirring ’copters overhead.
At least the tempo slows for the scene of revelation and reunion, presided over with silken dignity by Pamela Nomvete as a secular Abbess in carnival costume. There is at last a hint of the magical, enchanted quality of this play, but it’s far too late.
Angelo, the goldsmith in pursuit of his chain, or his money, is given some lovely strokes by Amit Shah, but this remains a persistently unfunny show – comparing very badly with Edward Hall’s deliriously enjoyable Propeller version earlier this year – cumbersomely threaded with English pop songs sung in Romanian by a busking quartet while the set creaks and threatens once more.
There’s too much “stuff” going on, and it’s significant that Lenny and Lucian get their biggest laughs when going into their voodoo hand signal routine, or rolling their eyes at the audience. Cooke wants to bring out the “dark” side of Comedy. He forgot the contrast. And the ensemble farce playing is of secondary school standard.
I loved this production - took my 12 year old son as his first ever Shakespeare and it couldn't have been a better choice. I agree that some of the words got lost in the first half but the second half was a hoot. Really excellent, not over lengthy, Elizabethan farce! - Tricia
04 Feb 12
Well, I'd like to give it 3.5.....I haven’t seen an entire street on the Olivier stage sine John Gunter built part of the city of Bath for The Rivals in 1984. Bunny Christie’s street has an extra third storey on the houses and is a bit (intentionally) shabbier, but is spectacular nonetheless. It transforms to create an apartment block, shops, nightclub and a clinic.
There is much else to enjoy in Dominic Cooke’s NT debut, but it doesn’t really sparkle like other productions I’ve seen, most recently Propeller at Hampstead in 2010 and I’m not entirely sure why. The pacing is a bit uneven; one minute it’s zipping along, then appears to have ground to a halt. I don’t know whether it has been cut, but it came in at just 2 hours 10 mins with a 20 minute interval, so I suspect it has - though not noticeably.
I liked the idea of acting out Egeon’s opening speech describing how he lost his wife and twin sons (and their twin servants). The more frenetic scenes are given a ‘keystone cops’ style that somehow made them seem fresh though still appropriate for the material. The Abbey has become the Abbey Clinic and one half of both twins end up ‘sectioned’ there after a particularly slick chase scene involving an ambulance driving onto the stage! I also like the idea that the twins have different accents, having been brought up in different places, though Shakespeare didn’t write any lines like ‘why are you speaking funny?’ to support this, so there’s even more disbelief to be suspended than usual! Despite the comedy that preceded it, the closing scene was much more moving than I’ve ever seen it before. I wasn’t sure about the band playing familiar songs in a foreign language at first, but I warmed to it.
After what seemed like a hesitant start, the acting was first-rate. The twins are well matched, particularly Lucien Msamati and Daniel Poyser as the Dromio’s. Lenny Henry has as much presence and as good a speaking voice as he did in Othello, but is much more relaxed in a comic role where he is able to use his full range of facial expressions. Claudie Blakely’s Adriana and Michelle Terry’s Luciana are deliciously chavvy creations.
So a good rather than great Comedy of Errors, but one I’m glad I saw. - Gareth James
04 Jan 12
The Comedy of Errors begins with a stirring recreation of the separation of a husband and wife and two pairs of twins and ends with a moving reunion. In between though it's completely daft and woe betide the production that tries to find a serious subtext to a ridiculous farce of mistaken identities which would collapse under the merest scrutiny. Fortunately Dominic Cooke avoids those pitfalls and chucks in all the Olivir's resources to ensure everything moves along at a pace to rival One Man Two Guvnors. Lenny Henry is ideally suited to such physical comedy and the quality of his verse speaking is also clear even through his accent which is Syracuse via the Caribbean - unfortunately this is not true of all of the cast. Chris Jarman is equally good as the increasingly bewildered Antipholus of Ephesus (which is apparently in East London) and there is an inspired decision to portray his wife and sister-in-law as bottle-blonde WAGs, superbly played by a rather croaky Claudie Blakly and a revelatory Michelle Terry revealing a hitherto unsuspected resemblance to Catherine Tate. The Comedy of Errors may have all the substance of a souffle compared to Shakespeare's later work but this is a terrific production and a splendid way to spend a soaking wet New Year's afternoon.
- David Baxter
02 Jan 12
Though understanding the comments made by this reviewer what he misses is the sheer fun of this production. Hats off to the national theatre you made us laugh. I agrre the first scene does need less noise : the ambulance scene is is season its pure pantomine. - Brian Hudson
01 Dec 11
I agree with Michael Coveney's review. I also found the play persistently unfunny. I was expecting this to be furiously paced but the first half was very sluggish. The set is distracting and the modernisation just doesn't work at all. Very disappointing evening. - Sam
01 Dec 11
What a great reader review that was from steveatplays - very fair and very honest. - Tom
29 Nov 11
This farcical play presents us with a number of double acts, and to the extent that these double acts are mined for laughs, the play succeeds. As it happens, Lenny Henry and Lucian Msamati are one terrific double act, and Claudie Blakley and Michelle Terry are another terrific double act. Chris Jarman and Daniel Poyser do not work quite as well. Bunny Christie's masterful set is an enormous brutalist cube, with myriad doors and passageways, that twist and turn in ingenious seemingly magical ways. Shakespeare's play is complicated in it's comedic set-up, and I recommend reading the short synopsis on the free cast list before it begins. One man who didn't was still convinced at the interval that one of the twins was a girl, and that there was only one pair of twins, and was baffled when his wife explained that there are two sets of male twins. The production mirrors the National's gem, One Man Two Guvnors in more ways than one. First, it utilises a band in between scene changes, which perform rather lovely renditions of popular tunes like "Crazy" and "Mad World." Second, Lenny Henry brilliantly pursues the James Corden acting playbook of alternating between sincere acting and bug-eyed ham. This is important as this is first and foremost a very broad comedy, and ham always gets the most laughs. As the twin servants, both called Dromio (apparently both sponsored by Emirates airlines/stadium and/or Nike), Lucian Msamati and Daniel Poyser are expert at being comedically beaten about the head and person by their masters. Claudie Blakley is a comedic revelation, incarnating the wealthy Essex girl stereotype to perfection, sporting towering heels, a short skirt and oodles of attitude(at one point she leaps onto a snooker table). Her pinch-browed dimbulb abrasive sidekick of a sister, played by Michelle Terry, is equally hilarious, and they are the comedic pairing of the year. Unfortunately, as Lenny Henry's twin brother, Chris Jarman is no comedic match, and plays his scenes so strightly he defuses them, and thus the play as a whole, of it's full comedic potential. All said, while this may not be as funny as One Man Two Guvnors, it is a great night out, hysterically funny in places and a worthy Shakespearean comedic effort for the National. (This review is of Saturday night's fifth of six previews). - steveatplays
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