The Comedy of Errors

The next production will be The Comedy of Errors.

The York Shakespeare Project presents The Comedy of Errors set in a northern Victorian mill town as the third production in its ambitious plan to perform all Shakespeare¹s plays in and around York over the next 20 years. The project has York-born Dame Judi Dench, actor Sir Antony Sher and former Royal Shakespeare Company director Adrian Noble as patrons and has already performed Richard III and a cross-dressing The Taming of the Shrew to acclaim.

The production runs from Wednesday 3rd December to Saturday 6th December at 7.30pm with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm at the Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York Y01 9SL.

Box Office 0845 961 3000.
Tickets £7, £6 concessions.

Director's Notes

By Chris Rawson

Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s earliest and shortest plays. It is a comedy and a farce but it is also one of the best constructed and tighest .

It is economical in the way it moves from the opening as Egeon explains the bizzare circumstances which lead to his life being put at risk, moves on to the comedy of misplaced indentity before falling back to the pathos of the final recognitions.

It deals with identity and the feeling of belonging.What is feels like to suffer from loss of self as with Antipholus of Syracuse who is

‘to the world like a drop of water/
That in the ocean seeks another drop
[his missing mother and brother]’.

It deals with merged indentities as with Adriana’s relationship with Antipholus of Ephesus that they are ‘clearly as one’. It deals with a loss of human status as with the Dromio twin servants seeing themselves as demoted to asses and apes.

I want us to explore this less obvious piece of Shakespeare and relish the challenge. It is a play that has been used as a skeleton for musics and farces (think of the Boys from Sycracuse film) but we are going to keep to the original text with minimal cuts although change the background.

We will transform Ephesus into a northern English mill town in the Victorian period as the two sets of twins in particular can be played as British rather than Mediterranean characters. This will help with the langauge, actors can use their natural voices, and will bring out the comedy.

For the opening scene we will add some masked mime to highlight the crucial elements in Egeon’s speech which underline the body of the play.

But it will still be a comedy.

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