Read Online The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare - Free Book Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
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classic clowning: against a curved white cyclorama with one door and one window, to the ragtime backing of a five-piece pit orchestra, the cast appeared as a circus troupe, baggily clad and garishly made up—the Antipholus twins with blue faces, the Dromios with red noses. Mainly harlequinade, it drew from other influences too, from vaudeville, musical comedy, even operetta.
5. Adrian Noble’s 1983 production was rooted in classic clowning; the cast appeared as a circus troupe, baggily clad and garishly made up.
1990—Surrealism
In Ian Judge’s RST production, Desmond Barrit played both the Antipholus twins and Graham Turner both the Dromios. Peter Holland 52 suggests that Judge may have been influenced by the recent BBC television production, in which one actor had played each pair of twins—a trick far more easily pulled off on-screen than onstage. Onstage, this doubling makes the audience very aware of the actors’ skill in apparently being in two places at once—it emphasizes theatricality. This theatricality was reflected in the production’s design. The play opened in Egeon’s prison, a brutal place, suggesting that Ephesus was under a heavily totalitarian regime, but this grim reality gave way to a surrealist set—a rectangular playing area surrounded by nine brightly colored doors, with echoes of Escher and Magritte and the Beatles’
Yellow Submarine
. The production was busy and inventive— and hugely popular, going on extended tour after its London run.
1996—Contemporary
Tim Supple’s production, starting at the Other Place and designed to tour, made a huge contrast with the accretions of props, extras, and business that preceding productions had required. On a spare set with a young cast, Supple delivered a version of the play—cut to just two hours and played in contemporary costume—designed to appeal to young audiences as it toured with its brand-new mobile auditorium to nontraditional venues around the country. To the unobtrusive and eerie backing of Adrian Lee’s music, played on Middle Eastern instruments, the production gave full value to the play’s farcical frenzy, while daring to be moving as well. One critic noted,
At the end of the play, two sets of twins, a husband and wife were reunited after more than 30 years, but there was not the sense of sudden celebration as is usually the way with comedies. Instead, the real emotion which would be felt by a family reunited was explored. Egeon did not have a kiss for his estranged wife as he passed her to leave the stage and it took time for the brothers to embrace. As the characters filed offslowly at the end, each displayed wonder and disbelief at what had gone before. With emotion running high, the celebratory feel was dampened: the audience knew all would be well but were left feeling it would take time. 53
After a successful tour, the production had a short run at the Young Vic in 1997.
2000—Cinematic Influence
Lynne Parker, associate director of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, and artistic director of Rough Magic, directed this production—her first for the RSC—joined by designer Blaithin Sheerin, with whom she had worked on several previous productions for Rough Magic. The result was a design for the RST stage which fully expressed the influences on which Parker was drawing:
The show echoes the Marx brothers, the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby road movies and even the Carry On films. You can also detect the influence of
Casablanca
, Merchant Ivory,
A Streetcar Named Desire, Fawlty Towers
, the great P.G. Wodehouse and doubtless many others that escaped my delighted gaze. 54
(Charles Spencer missed the Courtesan whose skirt blew up like Marilyn Monroe’s.) Spencer was quick to point out the dangers of such a riot of references and to celebrate Parker’s success in avoiding them:
This is a risky undertaking and a slack, self-indulgent production would have sunk ignominiously with all hands. But the action is so fast, the comic
5. Adrian Noble’s 1983 production was rooted in classic clowning; the cast appeared as a circus troupe, baggily clad and garishly made up.
1990—Surrealism
In Ian Judge’s RST production, Desmond Barrit played both the Antipholus twins and Graham Turner both the Dromios. Peter Holland 52 suggests that Judge may have been influenced by the recent BBC television production, in which one actor had played each pair of twins—a trick far more easily pulled off on-screen than onstage. Onstage, this doubling makes the audience very aware of the actors’ skill in apparently being in two places at once—it emphasizes theatricality. This theatricality was reflected in the production’s design. The play opened in Egeon’s prison, a brutal place, suggesting that Ephesus was under a heavily totalitarian regime, but this grim reality gave way to a surrealist set—a rectangular playing area surrounded by nine brightly colored doors, with echoes of Escher and Magritte and the Beatles’
Yellow Submarine
. The production was busy and inventive— and hugely popular, going on extended tour after its London run.
1996—Contemporary
Tim Supple’s production, starting at the Other Place and designed to tour, made a huge contrast with the accretions of props, extras, and business that preceding productions had required. On a spare set with a young cast, Supple delivered a version of the play—cut to just two hours and played in contemporary costume—designed to appeal to young audiences as it toured with its brand-new mobile auditorium to nontraditional venues around the country. To the unobtrusive and eerie backing of Adrian Lee’s music, played on Middle Eastern instruments, the production gave full value to the play’s farcical frenzy, while daring to be moving as well. One critic noted,
At the end of the play, two sets of twins, a husband and wife were reunited after more than 30 years, but there was not the sense of sudden celebration as is usually the way with comedies. Instead, the real emotion which would be felt by a family reunited was explored. Egeon did not have a kiss for his estranged wife as he passed her to leave the stage and it took time for the brothers to embrace. As the characters filed offslowly at the end, each displayed wonder and disbelief at what had gone before. With emotion running high, the celebratory feel was dampened: the audience knew all would be well but were left feeling it would take time. 53
After a successful tour, the production had a short run at the Young Vic in 1997.
2000—Cinematic Influence
Lynne Parker, associate director of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, and artistic director of Rough Magic, directed this production—her first for the RSC—joined by designer Blaithin Sheerin, with whom she had worked on several previous productions for Rough Magic. The result was a design for the RST stage which fully expressed the influences on which Parker was drawing:
The show echoes the Marx brothers, the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby road movies and even the Carry On films. You can also detect the influence of
Casablanca
, Merchant Ivory,
A Streetcar Named Desire, Fawlty Towers
, the great P.G. Wodehouse and doubtless many others that escaped my delighted gaze. 54
(Charles Spencer missed the Courtesan whose skirt blew up like Marilyn Monroe’s.) Spencer was quick to point out the dangers of such a riot of references and to celebrate Parker’s success in avoiding them:
This is a risky undertaking and a slack, self-indulgent production would have sunk ignominiously with all hands. But the action is so fast, the comic
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