THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (The Cream-Faced Loons/Scram Collective)*****

 

By Megan

Link to Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re1s4oVhLl4&t=10s

Link to Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPmYpUkmvf0

Available until: Unknown

I loved this production of The Comedy of Errors! It is a really funny, clever play but it is also a very confusing play so sometimes I need to work very hard to keep track of who everyone is and what is going on.

This production could have been extra difficult because there are only four people playing all the roles but it wasn’t difficult at all. The four actors are really talented and they all made their characters seem really different and once I’d worked out which of the Antipholuses and which of the Dromios had glasses and which ones didn’t I was fine! All I needed to do was enjoy it and I really enjoyed it a lot.

This production of The Comedy of Errors began with a sung prologue, performed (and I’m guessing also written) by one of the actors, Abey Bradbury. She also sang a Story So Far song at the start of Part 2 (the two parts were filmed on different days) and also sang during the play. I think the songs are really great as they have good words which really help explain what is going on, they are very funny so they’re in the same spirit as the play, and I like the tunes too. Ms Bradbury also has a really good voice.

I really like the way they did the fight scenes. All they did was kind of wave their hands at the camera like they were fending each other off. It probably wouldn’t work in a serious play but that worked perfectly for The Comedy of Errors. It was exactly the right kind of comedy and I can also imagine the characters fighting that way for real. Another thing I really liked was when Antipholus of Ephasus was locked out of the tavern. The people outside the tavern appeared as people but the people inside the tavern just appeared as hands. I thought this was really clever and funny and they made their hand movements really expressive.

The four actors are all really talented. Both sets of twins are really funny and lovely. Sophie Coward plays the Antipholus twins. They are both quite bossy with the Dromios but they have different characters and Ms Coward is really brilliant at comedy and she makes the text so easy to understand. I have watched quite a lot of Shakespeare now so I think I’m getting quite comfortable with Early Modern English but I still really like it when I can enjoy the play and not use my brain so much. I also think it would be a really good production for people who aren’t used to Shakespeare because everything is so clear so they’re less likely to be a bit thrown by a language style they’re not used to yet. Ms Coward also has a very clever way of making both Antipholuses appear onscreen together.

I really love the Dromios too. They are both so funny and sweet. Daniel Chrisostomou makes them seem very similar in some ways so there’s a family resemblance (besides the physical resemblance) and very different in others (because twins usually have different personalities). Dromio of Esphasus is especially sweet and happy and I would want to hug him if we weren’t social distancing. Dromio of Syracuse is a little bit more streetwise I think and I like him too. I love how they did the hand holding at the end. It’s a really nice image and I realised for the first time (I think I’m quite slow sometimes, I’m only ten) that it’s like a symbol of the whole play which is all about bringing people together.

Alex Newport plays the Duke and Luciana in the first half and in the second half things get even more complicated when he also plays the Merchant, the Courtezan and the Abbess. I really like the way he plays women. The Comedy of Errors is a comedy but I think the love in the story (love for family and love for spouses) is really genuine and I think that wouldn’t come across so much if he had done a falsetto voice. His performances are very sincere. But he does also show he is really good at comedy.

Abey Bradbury plays everyone else and she is really good. Every character she plays, she does a different facial expression and a different voice and sometimes it’s quite hard to believe she is the same person. I don’t know the play well enough to be able to recognise every character she played but she does play Angelo, Adriana and Aegeon and she is brilliant at all of them. Her comic timing is perfect. She also has a skull (who I think would be brilliant in Hamlet) who plays Dr Pinch and another role. Ms Bradbury provides the skull’s voice and I really love the voice she does for Dr Pinch. I think he is a really funny character and the voice is perfect for him.

The Cream-Faced Loons have done productions of The Tempest and King Lear too. I might not be able to watch them very soon (and King Lear is one of the ones I’m saving for when I’m older) but I’m going to put them on our big list of plays to watch and I hope I’ll be able to watch The Tempest soon.