The Comedy of Errors**

17^th July 2019

Petersfield Shakespeare Festival

Besdales School

Rating: 4 Stars

We start in absolute chaos. Wheelbarrows of musical instruments are raced into the space, cast members chat animatedly and a loud barman tries to the find the purchaser of a large bottle of pino. Then silence. The cast pause in a moment of stillness. We can hear a pin drop. The spaces beauty surrounds us, entrances us, draws us in, before the players throw us into a mad world of comedic misadventure.

Becky Hope-Palmers production of mistaken identity is a fast paced, fully immersive comedy powerhouse. Rather than working against the open-air venue of Besdales school, Palmer makes every inch of the space work to her advantage. The set is a simple wooden stage; complete with barrels, chests and a sail. Trees, wooden barns and a large marquee, provide even more opportunities for the players to play and create unbridled mirth. You can practically smell the sea in the air, as we are all transported to the port of Ephesus. A soundtrack of traditional sea shanties performed live by the cast, not only bares dreams of nautical adventure, but also hints at the hilarity still to come. Lyrics such as ‘pure confusion’, ‘bring back a rich husband’ and ‘searching for the other half of you’ practically wink at the audience with their blatant themes.

For those unfamiliar with ‘The Comedy of Errors’ allow me to quickly enlighten you. Syracuse merchant Egeon is caught trespassing on the forbidden soil of Ephesus. He has until sunset to pay his bail or face execution. Dramatic stuff! ‘Where’s the comedy?’ I hear you ask. Well it turns out that Egeon has twin sons, one of whom was lost in a storm, along with his man servants (oh yes the twins have manservants who were also identical). Egeon has been searching the globe for his missing son for the past twenty years. Unbeknownst to him, his lost son has been living happily living in Ephesus with his wife, her sister and his manservant. Adding to this series of happy circumstances is the sudden arrival of Egeon’s other son from Syracuse, along with his manservant. With two sets of identical twins running around its not long before hilarity ensues.

I always admire it when a Shakespearean comedy doesn’t resort to solely relying on adlibs or crude humour to generate laughs. Although Plamers production has both of these features in spades, every actor seems to have an understanding of the text and takes pleasure in generating laughs through the power of the Bards words. Nowhere is this better shown than in the performances of two the Antipholus Brothers (played by William Gillham and Ben Clifford), who despite being cast as identical twins (and somewhat looking the part) still manage to use the text to find their own style of humour. Gillham gives the young Antipholus of Syracuse (the visiting brother) all the awkwardness of a wide-eyed traveller, who finds himself in an unfamiliar land. His stiff gait perfectly complements his almost foppish mannerisms. Mistakenly threatening his brothers servant with a lobster is also an absurdly brilliant touch. Cliffords Antipholus of Ephesus (the married brother) is played with a little more self-assurance, showcasing a man who is well established in his environment. Nevertheless this provides its own unique type of humour. There is something sadistically amusing about seeing such a confident character being broken down to absurd levels. Cliffords cries for justice in the final scene, delivered on his knees with one hand bound and sweat dripping from his forehead, are a far departure from the swaggering persona we glimpse at the start. As we laugh at his pitiful state, we cant help but think that he deserves justice. Another moment which teases the characters breaking point is when Cliffords Antipholous finds himself at the mercy of Doctor Pinch, a conjuring school master (played beautifully by David Mccartly as an American Preacher), brought in by his wife to exorcise the madness. What follows is an explosion of comedy, largely involving Clifford being thrown about the stage before being bodily carried off. Quiet simply what we have here is a comedy cauldron, gently simmering away before boiling over in a bubbling fury.

Speaking of comedy, it would be a fairly poor reviewer that doesn’t at least mention the brothers twin man servants Dromio (played by Sam Hollis and Sorcha Kennedy). Hollis and Kennedy unquestionably make good comedic fools. Barely a scene goes by where they aren’t staggering under some crushing load, dodging blows, running for their lives or just looking bewildered at the insanity that is their masters lives. Although Hollis and Kennedy are far from identical, their comedy skills are so well honed that it mattered as much as the stubbornly grey sky which overlooked the entirety of the performance.

However I am a big believer that the power in a lot of Shakespeare’s plays rest on the power of their female characters. So how do they measure up? Pretty damn good, it must be said! Katie Sally strikes a restrained, yet powerful figure as Solinus the Duke of Ephesus, whilst Valentina Vinci stands out as the imposing sharp tongued Angelo (worker of gold). Vinci’s constant exasperation neatly sums up the constant thought ‘why am I dealing with these fools’, a thought which I am sure many of the audience can sympathise with. The female cast are completed by Sadie Pepperrell and Lauren Orrock, who play Adrianna (wife of Antipholus of Ephesus) and her sister Luciana, with all the wit and fire one could hope for.

This being said there is still potential for further exploration in this production. Hope-Palmer seems to dabble in two very different styles. The show opens with a mixture of classic story telling and physical theatre, precided over by Robert Cohens Egeon (a masterful storyteller). Although the style is effective it is never used again within the rest of the production. As a result instead of enhancing the production it just looks a little out of place. There were also a few problems with projection and music. Besides Valentina Vinci, whose booming voice could be heard across the county line, all of the female cast were lost vocally at certain points throughout the performance. Also as is often the way with live, unamplified music, at points the vocals became lost or drifted out of time as the musicians desperately tried to multi-task. However these are but mere minute criticisms against an otherwise Shakespearean diamond. The main thing wrong with Hope-Palmers production is that its not on for longer.