THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (Shakespeare Happy Hours)****

 

By Dave

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO1ovy_vvNY

Available until: indefinitely

Someone once told me The Comedy of Errors was a ‘romp’. It’s fair to say I misinterpreted what they meant slightly but I really can’t say this play was a disappointment the first time I saw it.

It wasn’t a disappointment this time either. It is a bit silly so you don’t want to take it too seriously but it’s also a lot of fun. So just sit back, enjoy it, don’t think too hard and you’ll have a great time. As always, Shakespeare Happy Hours know exactly how to pitch the play and the humour to ensure their audience has a great time.

They’ve done well with the casting – Alex Hernandez (Antipholus of Syracuse) and Dylan Kammerer (Antipholus of Ephesus) aren’t really identical but there are certainly physical similarities. The two Dromeos, Drew Broussard (Syracuse) and Dan Beaulieu (Ephesus) are a fairly good match too – and both sets of twins are wearing almost identical clothes. It all helps the audience to fall in with the illusion.

The four twins play their roles really well. They’re close enough in character to their twins to help make the mistaken identity convincing but there are small differences which you can really appreciate, especially in the Zoom close-ups. Throughout the series, all four of these actors have shown a real talent for comedy and they work together brilliantly, whether they’re with the ‘right’ master/servant or not. Some of the facial expressions Alex and Dylan produce when they’re mistaken for their twin only add to the amusement while Drew and Dan get warier and warier of whichever Antipholus they happen to think is their master.

Danielle Nigro and Celeste Perez are assertive (I do mean that in a good way) as sisters Adriana and Luciana. Joel Iwaskiewicz’s eccentric Dr Pinch might be my new favourite character in the play (though I’m not sure, he has lots of competition) and Doug Share is a well-characterised and slightly scary Angelo. I definitely wouldn’t want to mess him around so I’m very glad I don’t have an identical twin running around the place. Natasha Magigi is a stylish courtesan and there’s a really moving moment at the end when Kathy Somssich’s Abbess meets James Sears’ Egeon.

There’s another great moment when everyone suddenly and simultaneously realises what’s been going on. This cast really make the most of it and make it sound convincing.

One advantage of producing the play on Zoom is that we always know which Antipholus and/or Dromeo is onscreen. It can be a bit difficult to be sure in a theatre if you’re sitting a long way back and I do think Zoom helped with keeping track of what was going on.

Even my twins enjoyed the play. They’ve just started secondary school and they’re a little bit resistant to Shakespeare on the whole but they love anything with twins in and I’ve discovered that applies even when it’s recommended by their dad. The Comedy of Errors has twin sets of twins so I was on to a winner, probably for the first time this year. There are parts which I hope went over their head (and I think they probably did - if my daughter knew what a courtesan was, she’d definitely have asked me, just to see if she could embarrass me) but the only thing she asked me is if Shakespeare wrote any more twin plays. I told them about Twelfth Night, asked if they were interested and got a ‘yes; from my son and a ‘maybe’ from my daughter, which is about as close to a yes as I could hope for. Now I just need to interest my older son. All I need is a Shakespeare play about railways and football… oh dear.