This Comedy Has No Errors: Reviewing 'Comedy of Errors' at The Globe

I sometimes feel just the tiniest bit of shame in admitting that I don't care much about comedies. Classical, medieval, or modern – as a genre, they have never really spoken to me in the same way that a tragedy has. The few comedies I engaged with in earnest during my university days, Twelfth Night for example, always had just the adequate pinch of melancholy in them to soothe the hardened sinews of my taste.

But boy did Comedy of Errors prove me wrong. Co-directed by Associate Artistic Director Sean Holmes and 2023 Globe Resident Associate Director Naeem Hayat, this tale of mistaken identities and situational comedy of the highest order is a thoroughly enjoyable production of unadulterated theatrical joy.

A widely accepted Elizabethan rip-off of Plautus’ classic The Brothers Menaechamus, this play revolves around two identical twin brothers, separated at birth, and their identical twin manservants (also separated at birth). We follow these four men as they journey through a series of ridiculously conceived and hilariously crafted scenarios in search of one big, happy ending.

The company of Comedy of Errors. Photo credit: Marc Brenner

Capping off what can only be described as a phenomenal summer series at the Globe, this end-of-season production is a masterclass in sustained self-awareness. The company knows well that there is nothing earth-shatteringly new for them to add: after all, this is a story filled with the most contrived of narrative tropes and one which already has an infinitely vast canon of adaptations on screen, stage, and text across global languages. But it is the awareness of this tedium that the creators and cast members work hard to dispell – with one-and-a-half hours of fabulously designed, and thrillingly mounted, clownery of the highest order.

Early in the play, after a somber pre-execution speech by the Duke (Rhys Rusbatch), we are greeted with a musical interlude on stage that illustrates the hilariously dark unraveling of London inns. Prostitutes are beating up clients who refuse to pay up, men of noble birth are challenging one another to duels over petty issues after a pint too strong, and nuns with mysterious solicitations on their minds roam the streets. The sequence, despite not adding anything constructive to the narrative of the play, is choreographed and performed with such outstanding brilliance and conviction that, for a second, I felt transported in time. And this feeling, which kept buoying my heart throughout the short run-time of this production, is one of its biggest feats.

In these small visual interludes, Tamsin Hurtado Clarke’s movement direction and Maisie Carter’s action choreography repeatedly make you buy a story as old as time itself. But it does so with such panache that you are forced to suspend your rational wariness and just stare joyously at the unfolding events.

The company of Comedy of Errors. Photo credit: Marc Brenner

The brothers Antipholus of Ephesus and Antipholus of Syracuse, played by Caleb Roberts and Daniel Adeosun respectively, take the demanding verbosity of Shakespearean text in their stride. In their able hands, the identical twins end up developing distinctly charming personalities, and their well-measured dialogue delivery marks them out as performers with the highest awareness of the fleeting sensibility that comedic timing requires. Equally good are their manservants, Dromio of Ephesus and Syracuse, played by Sam Swann and Martin Quinn respectively. Swann and Quinn bring an infectious energy, which coupled with impressive physical agility, helps bring to life the quintessential Shakespearean Fool iconic to Renaissance theatre.

But the scene-stealing turns come from the female cast of the play. Gabrielle Brooks and Shalisha James-Davis star in this production as the witty, coquettish sisters Adriana and Luciana. Blessed with some of the most hilarious quips in the play, both Brooks and James-Davis deliver their lines with a musical rhythm that enables the bawdiest of speech and the most offensive of puns to come off as pleasant. Whenever the energy of the performance threatens to dip, you pray for their speedy return to the stage.

The company of Comedy of Errors. Photo credit: Marc Brenner

Special mention too must be made of Phoebe Naughton, the Courtesan, who is an absolute revelation. With limited time, she leaves one of the strongest impressions in the hearts of the audience, whilst bringing an air of much-needed irony to the play’s obvious themes of misogyny and racism. In the end, when all loose ends are tied, brothers are reunited, debts repaid, and lovers married, it is she who stands on the corner of the stage forlorn, albeit with a smile. And it is the sight of her standing aloof – decked in finery but friendless and loveless – that the show's real prowess shines through. By not adapting the text to a more politically correct, contemporary sensibility, the creative team deliberately makes the audience reflect on their own in-built biases. Why does everyone but Antipholus of Ephesus’ mistress get a contented finale? Is material fulfillment enough, to obscure the fated destiny of eternal loneliness? We must wonder.

All in all, the Globe’s Comedy of Errors is a no-holds-barred, bonkers staging of one of the Bard’s shortest yet most well-loved comedies. Even if you hold strong reservations about the play, I insist you give this production a chance. If not for anything else, for the simple sake of being transported back to a time when happy coincidences and miracles were possible. A possibility that seems increasingly rare in today’s crisis-ridden world.

Comedy of Errors plays at the Globe Theatre until 27 October.