Comedy of Errors

Now with a change of name and in the second year at their new home of Buckden Towers, the magnificent fortified medieval manor house and later a Bishop’s palace, Shakespeare At the Towers (SatT) once again chose the ornamental Knot Garden and magnificent walled backdrop to put on the Bard’s shortest play and one I have to admit I don’t recall seeing before. Although statistically a regularly commercially preformed play it is not done on the amateur stage very often as it does require the casting of two sets of supposedly identical twins. Under the direction of James Barwise, assisted by Katy Palmer and Louise West, this adaptation had no such difficulty and particularly with the casting of the two Dromios you soon believed they were indeed twins.

The convoluted plot, for those (like me) that needed it, and very well explained in the accompanying programme, is set in the ancient Greek/Roman city of Ephesus, involves two sets of identical twins, the highborn pair both named  Antipholus, of Ephesus and Syracuse respectively and their two servants, again both named Dromio, being separated by a ship wreck with each pair ending up being rescued by different boats and their father, Egeon spending the next twenty three years searching for his long lost family, until by chance they all end up in the same place at the same time with mistaken identity, slapstick humour,  and confusion as each Dromio ends up unknowingly carrying out errands for the other Antipholus.

The set, neatly designed by Sarah Deboys used the background of the corner tower with a single entrance door and window above it and the ramparts of the wall to the side of the tower. Against the walls were an eclectic selection of barrels, boxes, planks of wood, wicker baskets, coiled rope etc, a lot of which was used in the action and all furniture was moved and setup by the cast as needed. Some neat economical tricks were used such as a when a table was required it was built in a matter of seconds by the cast using planks and a couple of trestles.

Lighting as daylight slowly turns to night is something this company are well rehearsed in, and with two large rigs by Doug Deboys to either side of the stage under the design control of Max Richardson and operated by Susan Hilton and Jess Nichols subtly lit the stage as darkness descended.

With an un-miced cast and with actors who can actually project, sound designed by Martin Avery wasn’t actually an issue at any time, although following spoken Elizabethan English isn’t aways easy.

Costumes, under the supervision of Caroline Richardson, with a team of a dozen helpers were extremely well coordinated from the very regal dress for the Queen, flowing dresses for Adriana and Luciana, the almost matching ornate britches and doublets for the two Antipholus to the cleverly opposing colour striped tops and britches for the two Dromios. They looked so alike there were times when the clothes and which was wearing red and black or blue and black were the only way we could tell which was which Dromio! 

Shakespearian veteran and past chairman of the old SatG, Richard Brown returned to the stage after a seven-year absence to play the merchant Egeon, with a classic portrayal of a man worn down by weariness in his search for his lost wife and child.

In a gender change from the Bard’s original Duke Solinus, Katie Gouskos played a very dominant and regal Solina, Queen of Ephesus, you certainly wouldn’t want to cross her, but she does give Egeon one day’s grace to pay his fine; or die!

The two lost twins, Antipholus of Ephesus played by Ted Ridgway Watt and Antipholus of Syracuse, played by Reuben Milne did confusion rather well. The expressions of incredulity were particularly comic and were neatly used to draw the audience in by a shrug of a shoulder or a hand movement as if we could provide the answer. Very well thought out.

Being the linchpins of the narrative the two Dromios, Dromio  of Syracuse played by Will Maillou and Dromio of Ephesus played by Chris Thompson had obviously spend a lot of time imitating each other, as the way they walked or ran on or off the stage, their stance,  and even their speech to a certain extent was indistinguishable from each other. Very much helped by costumes and makeup they were a master class in how to play identical twins.

Rhiannon Owens as Antipholus of Ephesus’ wife, Adriana and her sister Luciana played by Becky Gilbert were a very good pair of conspiring sisters, playing neatly off each other.

The Goldsmith, Angelo was supposed to have been played by Sally Le Page but due to illness was thus played by understudy Katy Palmer, who did an expert job stepping up from Second Courtesan, without a script or prompt in sight! Impressive! Her merchant creditor destined to arrest the wrong Antipholus was played by Oliver Smith. The other merchant, Balthasar was played by Mark Hebert

Finally, to set things right we had a very pious Abbess / long lost wife to Egeon, played by another SatT veteran Steph Hamer who (spoiler alert) appears towards the end of the play to reunite the two pairs of twins.

Well done also to Caroline Burgess who played the First Courtesan and a splendidly mad Pinch, Ray Livermore who played an Officer and Luce, Louise West who stepped in to play the Second Courtesan and Taylor Langley, playing her fist ever part on English soil as the Messenger.

I think I can safely say that SatT have settled into their new home and are well set for the foreseeable future, even having a new patron in Dame Evelyn Glennie. So, well done to James Barwise, his cast and crew. An excellent if somewhat warm evening’s entertainment.

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