Theatre review: The Comedy of Errors(Shakespeare's Globe & tour)

PREVIEW DISCLAIMER: The production is previewing at the Globe prior to a tour.

Second night in a row for me of Brendan O'Hea's new touring ensemble, and another completely ridiculous play - although unlike Pericles at least The Comedy of Errors has every indication that Shakespeare actually meant for it to be ridiculous. Once we get a particularly egregious Basil Exposition speech out of the way the stage is set for Antipholus of Syracuse (Colin Campbell) and his servant Dromio (Beau Holland) to land in the hostile city of Ephesus, in search of their respective long-lost identical twin brothers. Despite having been looking for them for seven years they're unprepared for the fact that their doppelgangers actually do live there, and don't take the hint when they constantly get mistaken for Antipholus (Andrius Gaucas) and Dromio (Eric Sirakian) of Ephesus, including by the local twin's wife Adriana (Evelyn Miller.)

Between the fact that Antipholus of Syracuse is more interested in Adriana's sister Luciana (Mogali Masuku) and Antipholus of Ephesus' numerous dodgy deals that his brother keeps getting billed for, The Comedy of Errors is one of the more reliably madcap Shakespeare comedies, and this touring production gets mixed, but largely positive results from it. There’s a lot of opportunities for particularly violent slapstick and O’Hea and his cast have been very creative in coming up with different ways for the Antipholae to beat up the hapless Dromios. The frantic pace of the production does mean though that there’s little exploration of how much of a bad guy Antipholus of Ephesus is, either in his abusive relationship with his Dromio, or the affair he’s blatantly been having with Natasha Magigi’s showstopping courtesan.

Also proving a comic scene-stealer for the second night in a row is Mark Desebrock, whose Doctor Pinch’s attempts to exorcise the Ephesians are downright bizarre. On the downside it’s not tended to strike me before quite how often The Comedy of Errors stops dead for lengthy speeches catching everyone up with the plot so far (beyond the opening Basil Exposition speech,) and here that does regularly derail the action. But this is still very early in the run and this is a playful cast who I’m sure will find new ways to spice things up as they play for more audiences – for the most part it feels like the Globe’s tour is in good hands.

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare is booking in repertory until the 23rd of August at Shakespeare’s Globe; and touring between the 17th of May and the 29th of September to Chilham, Charleston South Carolina, Porthcurno, Taunton, Bangor, Brighton, Guernsey, Oxford, Petronell-Carnuntum, Oslo, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes including interval.