The Comedy of Errors – Royal Shakespeare Company/Barbican, London

A review of The Comedy of Errors, part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s annual winter transfer to the Barbican in London. This raucous comedy is fun and silly in just the right doses.

The Comedy of Errors

I’ve seen quite a bit of Shakespeare this year, actually. Romeo & Juliet (and Juliet & Romeo), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, As You Like It, Hamlet… The plays and productions have run the gamut from silly to serious, and from modern to traditional. But one Shakespearean work I have never seen (until now) is The Comedy of Errors. The plot will seem familiar if you’ve seen enough Shakespeare. There’s a storm (almost) and twins for a start. In fact, two sets of twins.

The action begins with Egeon. A stranger in Ephesus, in search of his son and his servant, Egeon is arrested and threatened with beheading. Egeon, unexpectedly, welcomes death as an end to his woes. Intrigued, the Duke hears his story. Many years ago, Egeon and his family – a wife, twin sons, and another set of twins bought to be servants to their own boys – set sail for their home in Syracuse. When a storm seemed imminent, the crew abandoned ship, taking the only lifeboat. Egeon and his wife Aemilia lashed themselves, and the babies, to a mast. When the storm does not arrive it seems like a miracle; that is, until the ship hits a rock and the family is torn asunder. They are all rescued by different ships, and separated.

The Duke takes pity on Egeon, and postpones his sentence for a day while he seeks assistance. Meanwhile, his son Antipholus of Syracuse and servant Dromio have been seeking their long-lost twins (of the same names). Wouldn’t you know it – everyone ends up in the same town on the same day, and a series of mishaps occur, caused by mistaken identities between Antipholuses and Dromios.

The RSC Production

The scene is thus set for plenty of slapstick and bawdy humour, as merchants and servants, Antipholus of Ephesus’s wife, and the twins themselves, mistake one Antipholus or Dromio for the other. This production, first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford in Summer 2021 and now at the Barbican for the winter, takes this opportunity and runs with it. The play becomes larger than life – there are singers, multiple layers of storytelling, and plenty of physical comedy.

Some of these are unique adaptations for this production. For example, the role of Adrianna, wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, was shared by two actresses and played as pregnant. This started as a necessity as Hedydd Dylan announced a pregnancy shortly after rehearsals began and has job-shared with Naomi Sheldon. But it also introduces a new dimension to the dynamic between the newly-married couple. Likewise BSL has become part of this production thanks to actor William Grint, who plays a merchant. I have to admit it took me a moment to figure out what was going on with the sign language. I firstly thought it was going to be fully interpreted and accessible to D/deaf audiences like 10 Nights, then was a little confused when it wasn’t, then figured out it was specifically this character and his bodyguard who use BSL.

All of these elements make it a rather busy production, at times ratcheting up to frenzied. With subplots silently acted out between characters in the background, you need to pay full attention to keep up with the main storyline. Perhaps a little light pruning of a few of these might have been beneficial. But there is a contagious energy to the production, which reminded me of seeing A Midsummer Night’s Dream earlier in the year.

Final Thoughts

With so much going on both in the plot and in the production, it’s the acting that makes it. There was some very inspired casting going on at the RSC: Guy Lewis/Rowan Polonski as the two Antipholuses and Jonathan Broadbent/Greg Haise as the Dromios are just perfect. The standouts for me, however, were the women. Naomi Sheldon plays Adrianna perfectly – passionate, strong and barely keeping herself under control as her husband appears to have gone mad. Her sister Luciana (Avita Jay) is equally spirited, and the two have a great chemistry. Zoe Lambert, Sarah Seggari and Toyin Ayedun-Alase play smaller female roles, but are all scene-stealers.

Overall, I thought this production showed how good Shakespeare can be when you just relax and have fun. Incorporating pregnant and Deaf characters? No problem. Let’s have some singers in there, too. Plus a beatboxer. And a completely ridiculous fight scene (credit to Fight Director Renny Krupinski). The way the props are used, the dance number at the end; it’s all really joyful. This makes it so much fun to watch – I’m surprised The Comedy of Errors isn’t staged more often if these are the possibilities.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4.5/5

The Comedy of Errors on until 31 December 2021