WW Reviews

The Comedy of Errors is the shortest of Shakespeare’s farces chronicling the story of two twins and their twin servants who, in a storm, are separated. We meet them again as one twin, his servant and his father look for his brother. What follows is a series of meetings with people mistaking the servant twins and their masters for each other.

Sometimes a show comes along that puts into perspective all the other shows you have seen. For me, The Comedy of Errors, at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre was that show. All other shows were dwarfed by this play. The magnitude of the performances and the strength of the material shone. The acting and play were so strong that no technical effects were necessary. In a weekend where the shows I saw heavily relied on spectacle and effects it was such a change of pace for a show to be so brilliant without needing anything other than strong performers.

The direction just added to the humour and having never read The Comedy of Errors I was concerned that the language would be a barrier but I needn’t have worried as the play was so well acted, staged and directed that it was obvious what was happening.  

When I told people I was standing at The Globe they suggested I take rotten fruit to make it more authentic but I would have been throwing them at other audience members as not a single performer amongst the cast was anything other than superb. The set was minimal with a fantastic prop boat that was steered amongst the audience. Parallel costumes amongst the twin servants and masters made it easy to distinguish between the characters but understand how mistakes were made.

The experience of the Globe theatre felt like stepping back in time and imagining audience members experiencing this play for hundreds of years was exciting and illuminating as it shows the human experience is fundamentally always the same. I would highly recommend the Globe as an experience and particularly this play. Standing at the Globe for a comedy was thrilling, exciting and humorous; carried by the strength of the performers and the material it was one of the best plays I saw in 2024.

Photography by: Marc Brenner

Performance:
Saturday 19th October 2024
14:00
The Globe Theatre

Directed by: Naeem Hayat & Sean Holmes

Cast: