Comedy of Errors

Director Lewis Gray's production of Shakespeare's classic, The Comedy of Errors, is a clean, fast paced piece of work, which plays up its original farce elements. He guides a talented cast of first time Drama Barn-ers through a tour-de-force of hilarious one-liners and precisely constructed slapstick fight scenes, showcasing a competent production of Shakespeare's little known comedy.

What tone does a director take with a Shakespeare play at the end of Autumn Term, with a tight budget, and an even tighter amount of time? Well, Gray chooses to emphasise the conversational tone of Comedy, which widens the play's scope for previously undiscovered gems of humour. At the end of one particular scene two of actors paused in an over-emphasized shrug, which perfectly summarised the witty, yet archaic verse that preceded it. Another great 'moment' was where Meg Roberts, playing Dromio of Ephesus, slouched off of the stage in a tantrum-style fashion. Gray's deft use of these familiar, quotidian actions and reactions update Shakespeare's play, making it both accessible and hilarious to a student audience in an intimate theatre space like the Drama Barn.

However, the slap-stick, physical humour garners the most laughs. Fight scenes with a squeaky truncheon, and a self-aware underplayed performer like James Carr are a recipe for a belly of laughs. An actor like Carr knows his strengths - he performs plainly, working his audience through the smallest of movements: a twitch of an eyebrow, a curled lip. The two Dromio's, Meg Roberts and Ben Raper also physicalised their characters well, mimicking each other as the plays' fool-like twins. Raper was particularly on form during his entrances where he confidently used his stage time to preen and prance, forming a rapport with the audience that made him inanely likable throughout this abridged Shakespeare. Roberts mirrored Raper well whilst interpreting the other twin differently. She captured her character's defeated subservient attributes brilliantly - slouching her back and moving with a deliberate slow-paced gait. She was first an actress, and then a comic which for me allowed her to steal the show. Here, Roberts has proved herself to be an emerging talent, and someone to look out for in future Drama Society productions.

The play had a good cast, all round. Other performers, such as Helena Clarke as Adriana, delivered secure and subtle performances, maintaining the canny feel of the show. Antipholus of Ephesus, Sean Richards, and Antipholus of Syracuse, were confident and casual, assimilating with the style of the rest of Gray's interpretation of the script. Although for the most part they gained some great responses from the audience, some of the play's more serious moments demanded greater energy from these performers: maybe a variation in tone, perhaps more force behind some of the lines to deliver a greater emphasis.

These criticisms are ones I feel could have been avoided had the play had a big budget and a solid week of production in the Barn. The Freshers' plays have strict practical constraints, and yet Gray's The Comedy of Errors was a finely tuned, well-rehearsed, secure and honorific portrayal of Shakespeare's farcical script. Rosie Townsend's efforts behind the scenes are to be commended: Comedy was sold out, full to the brim, a merry audience created a great atmosphere for both actors and viewers who watched a comedy without errors. Gray has set the bar for himself, with regular members of the student theatre scene waiting in anticipation for his next venture: Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound in the Spring term.

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