THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. To 7 May.

Hornchurch

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
by William Shakespeare

Queen's Theatre To 7 May 2005
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat 28 April, 5, 7 May 2.30pm
Audio-described 7 May 2.30pm
BSL Signed 4 May
Runs 2hr 20min One interval

TICKETS: 01708 443333
www.queens-theatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 18 April

A Shakespeare show to prove no script is safe if Bob Carlton's eye falls on it.During the 1960s the typical sound of a Shakespeare play was an agonised scream. Comedies darkened, tragic gloom deepened. Now, if Bob Carlton has his way, it'll be a whoop of joy. Or so it seems from this updated, Big Appletised, rock n' roll Shakespeare.

Cut to the Chase is Carlton's Queen's company's name, and it's never been more literally applied than here as an opening dash leads Syracusan (and, in this New York called Ephesus, enemy alien) Aegeon into the grasp of a bribe-seeking, rough-em-up cop.

Songs break up Aegeon's back-story narrative, which is further explained on giant skyscraper-side news-flashes. Then the crazy antics get going as two sets of identical twins meet up, each unaware their sibling is in town. The masters are the motors of the plot, but the servants provide the comic detail and two excellent performances from Julian Littman and Matt Devitt, who grows into the production's comic crème de la crème.

To see these remarkably similar, yet (vitally) distinguishable Dromios either side a revolving glass door belting out You keep on knocking but you can't come in is a delight reflected later in an expertly-performed mirror-image sequence with the Dromios either side a plate of supposed glass conveniently resting in the street.

The songs generally are happy alternatives to actors expostulating and gesturing in an attempt to revive dead wordplay. And Carlton spruces up some of what's not sung with a backing beat or devices like a rapid-fire recounting of events.

What suffers is the human dimension, the final Looney Tunes' That's all folks being emblematic of a cartoon playing-style which finds little space for the play's emergent Shakespearean sympathy, such as the developing relationship between the newly-arrived Antipholus and his brother's wife's sister a relationship stymied too by the needs of doubling.

And the final comic moves are a bit under-powered. But who'd complain, with Nuns singing or blowing their own trumpets plus a band (The Ecclesiastics?) hanging around the convent gates, a Doctor Pinch whose quackery is endorsed by A-list celebs and a finale joyously incorporating the entire theatre staff on screen?

Balthazar: Philip Reed
Aegeon/Angelo/Doctor Pinch: James Earl Adair
Antipholus of Syracuse: Peter Helmer
Dromio of Syracuse: Julian Littman
Dromio of Ephesus: Matt Devitt
Adriana: Loveday Smith
Luciana/Aemilia: Wendy Parkin
Antipholus of Ephesus: James Eaton
Courtesan: Georgina Field

Director: Bob Carlton
Designer: Rodney Ford
Lighting: Chris Jaeger
Sound: Whizz
Musical Director: Julian Littman
Choreographer: Kraig Thornber

2005-04-21 00:35:55