The Comedy of Errors - RSC

When: 27th November 2021 (Matinee)

Where: The Barbican, London

Writer: William Shakespeare

Director: Philip Breen

I loved this play, it was so effective in the ways that it brought Shakespeare into the 21^st century and managed to make it humourous and understandable to a modern audience.

One of the best things about this production was the way in which it made the story so easy to follow. Often with Shakespeare you have to know the play before you go otherwise you have no idea what is going on, but within 20 minutes I knew everything that was going on and at no point during the play was I confused. This helped them to add layers to the piece, for example adding humour. Obviously it is a humourous play its called The Comedy of Errors, but humour during Shakespeare’s period was very different to now. In this production they managed to change the meaning of many of the lines taking what Shakespeare wrote as metaphors literally adding this to the use visual and physical humour, helping to make this piece hilarious within the 21^st century context. This was very admirable of the director and the performers. This was also further emphasised with direct address particularly the moment when the actor playing Dromio steps out of character and says ‘ These jokes are 400 years old, come on, try to find them funny’, immediately sending the audience into hysterics.

On top of creating 21^st century humour they also managed to reflect 21^st century society, introducing the inclusivity we see today into a very old play. For example the character of Adrianna, in this production she was pregnant this isn’t a thing in Shakespeare's original, but when Hedydd Dylan the original actor portraying Adrianna in this adaptation told the director she was pregnant he decided to write it into the piece. It is so cleverly done and with subtle hints to it in the text, only noticeable with this version of the character, it is difficult to understand that this wasn’t an original part of her character. The other character in the play that reflects modern society is that of the 2^nd Merchant. In this performance the character is played by a deaf actor and instead of removing this part of his identity or it detracting from the performance they instead made it part of the story. This also introduced the inclusion of another character, the bodyguard (acting as his interpretor). The dynamic between the two characters creates even more comedy in the piece, with moments when the merchant is wildly signing for a fair amount of time, before the bodyguard says the shortest line completely dead pan. It is such a clever inclusion and it makes the piece all the more enjoyable.

Personally I loved so many little things about this performance from the accapella group that sung during transitions and at other moments creating a bridge between the action and the audience. To the continuation of action during the Interval and the simplicity of the set. Everything about the production was so well thought through to make it not only enjoyable and understandable but truthful to Shakespeare’s original work. The changes they made were not to make it different but rather to highlight Shakespeare intentions to a modern audience.

I am a big fan of Shakespeare and this was surprisingly my first RSC performance, but I will definitely be getting tickets to more of their productions in the future perhaps even in Stratford-upon-Avon.