The Comedy of Errors
1983: James Cellan Jones
This is the BBC Shakespeare Plays series version of The Comedy of Errors. It contains a number of amusing features, none of them profound. It’s nevertheless a good deal of fun to watch.
Roger Daltrey of The Who was doubtless the person whose presence was most intended to attract outside attention to this project. His performance is perfectly adequate as the Dromios. Perhaps more worth noting for those who follow Shakespearean acting are Wendy Hiller (Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion [1938], and Lady Alice in A Man for All Seasons [1966]) and Cyril Cusack. All in all the performance is professionally managed from beginning to end, and nothing is grossly amiss. It’s not a profound play; one cannot expect a profound performance of it. It is a lot of fun, though.
Adriana: Suzanne Bertish
Aegeon: Cyril Cusack
Aemilia: Wendy Hiller
Angelo: Sam Dastor
Balthazar: David Kelly
Courtesan: Ingrid Pitt
First Merchant: Noel Johnson
Gaoler: Bunny Reed
Luce: Marsha Fitzalan
Luciana: Joanne Pearce
Master of the Mime: Nicolas Chagrin
Messenger: Peter Mackriel
Mime Troupe Member: Daniel Rovai
Mime Troupe Member: Graham Christopher
Mime Troupe Member: Howard Lee
Mime Troupe Member: Jenny Weston
Mime Troupe Member: Nick Burnell
Mime Troupe Member: Paul Springer
Mime Troupe Member: Ross Davidson
Officer: Frank Williams
Pinch: Geoffrey Rose
Second Merchant: Alfred Hoffman
Solinus, Duke of Ephesus: Charles Gray
The Antipholi: Michael Kitchen
The Dromios: Roger Daltrey
Buy the complete BBC Shakespeare Plays at Amazon. Note that this will require a Region 2 player or a region-free player: it will not play on most normal American DVD players. Nevertheless, the price is so reasonable that even with a region-free player thrown into the deal, you’ll come out ahead.
Buy the complete set of the BBC Shakespeare Plays or individual plays (including this one) in Region 1 format direct from Ambrose Video.