Writer: William Shakespeare
Director: Sean Holmes
Dromio, Dromio, where art thou, Dromio?
In the Globe’s new production of Shakespeare’s comedy, George Fouracres faces serious competition as the funniest Shakespearian actor of our times. Jordan Metcalfe is equally as comical and, as the two Dromios, Fouracres and Metcalfe shine in an otherwise serviceable production of one of the Bard’s earliest plays.
It’s also one of his shortest, but it doesn’t feel like it with director Sean Holmes deciding to forgo an interval. It lasts for two hours with some of the action dragging in parts. The cast throws in all the energy it can muster, but sometimes the energy levels are just too high. Of course, The Comedy of Errors is known for its slapstick and farcical elements but the scenes where the characters swirl around the stage as if in homage to Benny Hill or Carry On outstay their welcome. Each actor is larger than life but, in the bustle, constantly gurning to no one in particular, lines are lost.
The Comedy of Errors also lacks a subplot, but this doesn’t matter as long as the two Dromios, dressed in bright green clothes, are on stage. And fortunately, from the other set of twins, Michael Elcock is a very funny Antipholus of Syracuse and his high-pitched protests bring plenty of laughs. His confusion at the mayhem caused by all the mistaken identities is engagingly played. His Antipholus is the focus of the play and his innocence, along with that of his Dromio (Metcalfe) is very different from the short-temperedness of the other pair.
Matthew Broome is a gruff Antipholus of Ephesus while Fouracres seems to be a lazy, if mischievous, servant. Perhaps their more unlikable qualities stem from the fact that they inhabit a world of commerce when money and gold, deals and exchanges, take centre stage. In comparison, the pair from Syracuse are naive newcomers to early capitalism.
But you go to The Comedy of Errors for its humour rather than for its examination of finance, and Fouracres and Metcalfe make a wonderful partnership despite never being on stage together until the end. Fouracres doesn’t even need to speak to have the groundlings in stitches while Metcalfe’s suspicion that every Ephesian is a witch is comedy gold. As the Second Merchant, Danielle Phillips brings the house down in her wig and her fake beard while Phoebe Naughton amuses with her facial expressions as the Courtesan, chasing her payment in the latter part of the play.
But despite everyone’s hard work, this production flags in too many places and it doesn’t delight in the same way the as the Globe’s slimmed-down Comedy did in 2019. Perhaps Holmes has turned up the dial a notch too high. His Tempest last year divided the critics, and it seems certain that his Comedy will do the same.
Runs until 29 July 2023
