Review: THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, Shakespeare's Globe

Twins occupy polarised spaces in our cultural imagination. They can mine the dark depths of uncanny horror. Think Dead Ringers or The Shining. On the other hand they can played for hilarity as in that the appropriately titled Schwarzenegger/DeVito Twins or that film about the Krays with two Tom Hardys.

The Comedy of Errors is the cultural ancestor to the latter. Two sets of identical twins, separated by a shipwreck from birth, are inadvertently reunited. Identities are mistaken and all hell breaks loose for all those caught up in the chaos. If that sounds confusing, it's because it is. You'll get lost on the way but that is part of the fun.

With the swashbuckling zeal of a rowdy tavern brawl and all the brash bravado you can shake a bulging codpiece at, the Sean Holmes-helmed The Comedy of Errors crashes onto the Globe stage to start the summer season with a bang.

Holmes' production is full-throttle funny. Performances are ramped up to eleven with delightfully cartoonish vivacity across the board. Holmes' foot is firmly on the accelerator pedal; Antipholus of Syracuse (an electric Michael Elcock) relishes the mayhem whilst his brother, Antipholus of Ephesus (a more grounded and grouchier Matthew Broome) snaps and crumbles in the mayhem. A confused chorus clamour around them with perfect chemistry to match.

It is George Fouracres' jocular Dromio of Ephesus who fills the Globe with effervescent warmth, even as the summer breeze summons a chilly evening. That's no mean feat given the Globe's uncharitable acoustics. He holds the audience by the collar, or should I say by the ruff. The cast waltz with glee in in gorgeously extravagant Elizabethan garb. Expect intricately woven corsets alongside doublet and hose to make John Donne green with jealousy.

Its unpretentious candidness makes it unique amongst contemporary Shakespeare stagings. The Globe has been eager to give fashionably moral stamps on The Bard; we have seen The Tempest as a climate conscious clarion call and Romeo and Juliet as a meditation on knife crime. There are no façades here and it is curiously refreshing. Subtler meditations on marriage and madness emerge even without a zeitgeist attuned amplification.

The language speaks for itself and the comedy flourishes. With that said, the production is too gleefully eager to gerrymander innuendos into the text like a smutty schoolboy defacing a textbook with crude doodles. Then again comedy is subjective.

For all the boundless energy and slapstick silliness, Holmes remains firmly in control. He gently reigns it in for the unexpectedly poignant finale; Claire Benedict's Abbess is reunited with her long-lost sons. She radiates a mother's mournful melancholia that cuts through the commotion with sonorous compassion.

There may be less dramatic meat on the bone to chew on compared to other Shakespearean offerings, but The Comedy of Errors has questions of its own that Holmes effortlessly finds room to accommodate in amongst the antics.

The Comedy of Errors plays at The Globe Theatre Until 29 July

Photo Credit: Marc Brenner

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