The Comedy of Errors
2015: Blanche McIntyre, Ross MacGibbon

This entry into the unfolding collection of Globe Shakespeare productions is, like most of them, perfectly serviceable, but it is not, I think, in any way a standout. The acting is certainly adequate, and, like all of these productions, it conveys a lively sense of place and the interaction with the audience. Because The Comedy of Errors is such a very short play, even uncut, this one seems to need to be padded with abundant extra stage business, including a lengthy mime at the beginning of the play in which the character playing one of the Dromios is trying to retrieve a piece of cloth that has become stuck hanging from the ceiling. There are probably ten minutes of antics with ladders and poles and various other paraphernalia, reminiscent of a Buster Keaton routine. None of this is really part of the play, though when the cloth finally falls to the stage (much later in the play), it is a laugh line. It does manage to give the audience the show they’ve paid amply to see, and they seem to eat it up. All these plays thrive on the sense of audience interaction, and that’s worth observing, surely.

It is probably unnecessary to mention that there is not a whole lot of nuance in the representation of any of the characters: the play doesn’t provide any real nuance to work with. It’s a relentless farce, and as such it’s entertaining. There is a recurrent pattern of musical accompaniment that sounds curiously Middle-Eastern, without any particular rationale for it. This is entertaining enough on its own, without any really offensive bits, but for anyone trying to see the play on its own terms, one of the other productions is probably a better choice. As often, the BBC version (itself not spectacularly good) or the Canadian one with Richard Monette, would be more to the point.

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