More Errors than Comedy

Review: Comedy of Errors, Bell Shakespeare, Civic Theatre, Wagga Wagga, 9 July 2022

The promotional material for Bell Shakespeare’s current production of The Comedy of Errors describes it as “a hilarious romp of swapped identities, misguided love, mistaken imprisonment and chaotic mishaps, leading to an unbelievably crazy day for bumbling twins”. It goes on to say, and this is where the first note of caution is sounded, “at the heart of this tale of comedic misfortune is an old man searching for his lost children. He finds himself in a hostile land, in the fight of his life... to save his life. As far-fetched coincidences unfold, chaotic hilarity ensues and a man’s life could be saved — if only everything would go to plan”

The Comedy of Errors is early Shakespeare. It is his shortest play, a farce composed of slapstick, mistaken identity and a tortuous amount of word play which, to a modern audience, is almost unfathomable without accompanying explanation or  skilfully enacted ‘shtick’ to illuminate the risqué or obscure analogies being made.  This Janine Watson-directed production only occasionally manages to provide that. The rest of the time we laugh with slight embarrassment knowing from the presentation that we are witnessing something supposedly uproarious but mystified as to what it might be. 

But back to that clue to Watson’s interpretation provided on the website. The old man, Egeon, is or would be a tragic figure if he were not so clearly a plot device. His role in the opening act is to give us the backstory so that we understand why there are 2 sets of identical twins roaming around oblivious to each other because they haven't clapped eyes on each other since becoming separated during a shipwreck some 30 years earlier.  We need a springboard for the absurd events of the play to enfold and some anchoring of the mayhem in a plausible event.  However Watson makes a strange choice – instead of making Egeon’s opening monologue the painless if poignant exposition it needs to be (I would have used projected graphics) she gets the actor to precede the speech with a series of writhing hand gestures which may or may not be intended to evoke the motion of ocean waves or be a nod to the Indigenous dance prowess of actor Maitland Schnaars. He then delivers a speech of 88 lines unalleviated by nuance, light or shade and the Duke of Ephesus, here played by female actor, Alex King, in militaristic khaki bedecked with a sash and medals and the most glistening red footwear since Dorothy’s ruby slippers, responds by saying it all sounds very sad, she is obliged to sentence him to death because he is an unwelcome Syracusian, but she will give him 24 hours to pay a fine that will spare him execution.

Between this, the next, and several following scenes there is much jiving to disco music of the 80s (so cute seeing the cast ironically recreating poses and outfits from an era before most of them were born) and choreographed hoisting and stacking of suitcases. We get it, one set of Antipholuses and Dromios is arriving in search of their matching bookend selves and all is in flux and frivolous on the island of Ephesus.

The series of ‘hilarious’ mix ups now ensues. Everyone mistakes each Antipholus and Dromio for the other pair including they themselves and poor Adriana, wife of the Ephesian Antipholus, rants, raves and almost rends her Osti patio gown in perplexity at his refusal first to come home to dinner and then to acknowledge her as his missus when he does. Giemi Contini, no doubt under strict direction, starts her performance at a histrionic fever pitch she maintains throughout the action until the penny drops about 5 minutes from the end of the play that her husband is an identical twin whereupon she goes all docile and lovey dovey.

Challenging unnecessary cis casting, Adriana’s sibling, Luciana/o is played, rather delightfully by Joseph ‘Wunujaka’ Althouse (the quotation marks are used in the program) as a wise, loyal and winsome gay man in Bermuda shorts and a fluoro fair isle vest that rivals Adriana’s tropical moo moo.  Watson thus manages to be both woke and to elicit a few old school giggles when Syracusian Antipholus comes on to him.

The star turns in The Comedy of Errors are the Dromios. As unofficial jesters to their masters they carry most of the verbal and physical humour. Just as the Antipholusus are made to resemble one another because they wear almost identical emerald green suits and mottled tan shirts, the Dromios are clearly twins because they both have slicked back blond hair and are dressed in white shirts and black trousers with braces.  Ella Prince and Julie Billington both bring quicksilver energy to the roles and do their utmost to convey to us the comedy in each bit of business or wordplay. The frequent beatings they endure are borne good naturedly and lessened in impact by the creative decision to employ balloons in place of any actual weapons, a device that doesn’t always work, especially when the balloons are later employed in a more conventional celebratory way. Often the pace of delivery means that any chance to ‘get’ and enjoy the Dromios’ lines is snatched away from us.  One example being the patter about the fat kitchen wench (another gender swap – to minimize the misogyny - in this production) in which Billington gives a virtuoso performance of accents and stereotypes in quick succession but that succession is so quick that we have no time to savour the material or the performance.

The disco theme wanes as the play progresses and Watson hints at something existential by briefly adding a neon ‘find yourself’ sign to the back drop that has displayed a ‘wish you were here’ sign throughout the production and having the two Dromios peer, pose and sway on either side of a mirror on wheels that substitutes for the doorway to Ephesian Antipholus’s house. I was half expecting a Patty Duke/Groucho Marx routine.  The most bizarre ‘who is really who?’ and ‘are we complete without our other self?’ moment comes when one Dromio/Antipholus pair wind a rope round the other. We know this is symbolic because of the slo mo, music and lighting but also because no one acknowledges that both sets of twins are participating in the same scene which they don’t officially do until the end of the play.  All presumably very deep, but signifying what?

I won’t dwell on the unsatisfying portrayal of Dr Pinch and the abortive attempts to exorcise the demons from Syracusian Antipholus except to say that Leilani Loau keeps on the white smock she wears to play the doctor when she transitions into the Abbess in the next scene, just deleting and adding accessories. She appeared much more comfortable pontificating about madness and sanctuary in a wide eyed elder states womanly way than she did being the quack.  She also gets to unravel the confusion about the two sets of twins and reveal that she is in fact Aegon’s long lost wife (a little matter she had kept schtumm about for 2 decades).

Finally we see brothers and parents, servants and masters reunited. For this Watson creates a kind of caterpillar group hug tableau evoking a profundity somewhat at odds with the preceding farce. Given her statement about ‘an old man searching for his lost children’ -  a reference to the stolen generations?

I’ve seen John Bell on Q & A arguing for the continued relevance of Shakespeare and his works’ infinite capacity for reinvention. There was a bit of that going on in this production. The most obvious being casting women in roles traditionally played by men which, as Upstart Crow reminds us, is any and all of them! Having gender fluid Dromios worked and the chemistry of the Dromios and Antipholuses worked too. (Skyler Ellis and Felix Jozeps were very enjoyable to watch). What felt forced and clunky was the imposition of the disco tunes and the resort imagery and costumes.  Were they supposed to evoke the other worldliness/fairyland quality of Ephesus? Then there was the ensemble dynamic which never quite gelled, partly because of the dissimilar styles of the performers and partly because the action was fragmented by the obsessive use of the moving sets of steps and protracted choreographed sequences reminiscent of Sean Micallef’s Clockwork Movement dance routines.

The Comedy of Errors is difficult to bring to contemporary audiences.  Its absurd plot demands total mastery of the farce style and its archaic textual references challenge an audience’s comprehension even in the hands and mouths of the most accomplished actors. Making the play accessible and funny today is a tall order and overlaying it with daffy disco hits, spurious social references and ponderous existential montages is not the way to do it.