The Stage

The Comedy of Errors

Published Monday 25 June 2007 at 10:35 by Ian Barge

If one of the marks of a successful production is to send a reviewer back to the play with renewed respect and insight, then Glen Walford’s Ludlow Festival The Comedy of Errors is a triumphant vindication of her choice. Probably Shakespeare’s first play and certainly his shortest, the piece is constantly patronised, pruned or heavily adulterated. Not here. The secret of the company’s artistic success is to acknowledge and exploit the brilliance of Shakespeare’s plotting; he outplots Plautus in spades. Everything is manically plot-driven; there is no pretence of literary sophistication or psychological subtlety. Highlighting the elements of frenetic farce is the key to unlocking the play’s vastly underrated performance potential. The result is an evening of hugely inventive exuberance and a convincing consistency of acting style. A rare event in summer festival Shakespeare, where Bardolatory is endemic: an audience without preconceptions relishing a play without pretention. Even the three minutes of rainfall were tears of laughter from an enchanted empyrean. The cast capitalise on the play’s preposterous absurdities by acknowledging them and revelling in them . In this they are fired and energised by the two superbly vaudevilled Dromios of Matthew Devitt and Roy Holder. As their bemused masters, the twin Antipholi, Andrew Pollard and Jonathan Markwood hover captivatingly on the brink of self-parody, as do the hilariously delerious, dementedly tormented Adele Lynch (Adriana) and Louise Shuttleworth (Luciana). Rodney Ford’s stunning set gives us a Turkish Ephesus, secretive, sensual, sinister, a bustling sea port, gateway to all manner of deception and distraction. It brilliantly exploits the resonance of Ludlow Castle’s inner bailey and is magically lit by Mark Dymock. We have waited too long in Ludlow for a production of such coherence and conviction.