Comedy of Errors: Characters run riot in a hilarious chaos of mistaken identity
The Merchant of Venice
With standout performances in the key roles of Portia and Shylock, as well as those of Bassiano, Lorenzo and Jessica, this is a memorable Merchant of Venice and – as has proved normal with the three plays I have seen at this marvellous Pop Up Globe, the dimensions of which replicate the 17th century original – is full of vigour and energy. Directing the Buckingham Company, David Lawrence steers a deft course between full-on hilarity and the darker drama about inter-faith rifts (always a hot topic, and never more so than in Elizabethan England).
Patrick Griffin’s Portia is wonderful in both her female guise and her male guise as the crack-shot defence lawyer, and as ‘he’ is really Sarah Griffin – working the Elizabethan tradition of femme folk in disguise – we have the added delight of seeing a female playing a male playing a female playing a male. His Portia/Balthazar is superbly supported throughout by the all-knowing, hilariously simpering Will Alexander as the maid, Nerissa. Griffin’s presence on stage is impossible to ignore; it would be a lesser production without him.
Talented ensemble performs in a hilarious Merchant of Venice
There’s more comedy to be had at the expense of Jessica, once again played by a man (the tall and muscular Jade Daniels), with little attempt to make him appear otherwise except for a dress and wig – and a sweetly demure expression. It all makes for laughs as, for example, when her suitor Lorenzo (Patrick Carroll) leaps into her arms, rather than the other way around.
This is a production that makes the most of the comic action available, notably in the suitably ridiculous lottery that Portia’s father has decreed her potential suitors must undertake. (“It’s the 17th century equivalent of Internet dating,” someone in the audience whispered.) Of course Bassiano (Cameron Moore) must win the lady’s hand otherwise there would be yet another tragedy at hand. Naturally, Portia’s and Nerissa’s suitors break their pledges to keep their loves’ keepsakes safe for ever but of course it all ends happily (except for nasty old Shylock who loses his lands, his pound of flesh, his daughter and his faith).
Comedy of Errors
Also in rep at the Pop Up is the Comedy of Errors with the Southhampton Company, directed by Miles Gregory. Not the best known of Shakespeare’s comedies, it’s central theme of mistaken identities lends itself well to full on farce but it starts off a tad controversially with orange-suited ‘terrorists’ wielding knives, chanting “it is good that the foreigner should die” as they threaten to behead the unfortunate (and impecunious) Egeon of Syracuse who has failed the laws of Ephesus and is not able to pay the appropriate fine. Yes, everything is up for laughs here, including executions.
Riotous confusion reigns in Comedy of Errors led by a talented cast
Two sets of twins, both improbably given the same names – two masters called Antipholus and their two servants called Dromio – are shipwrecked and one pair ends up in Ephesus while the other washes up on Syracuse. Eventually, the Syracuse pair go travelling, looking and sounding like US tourists wearing G7 shirts, and of course they end up in Ephesus. The hapless servant of Twin Pair No 1 is soon confused at being given contradictory orders from the master of Twin Pair No 2 and then Antipholus of Ephesus’s wife Amanda (well played by Romy Hooper) is understandably confused by her ‘husband’s’ contrary behaviour, as is a prostitute – and so on and on. A series of wild mishaps leads to wrongful beatings, accusations of theft, madness and demonic possession. This last brings us to the intervention of the ‘mystic’ and wonderfully silly Dr Pinch (Stephen Lovatt), who travels with a troupe of whirling dervishes (as you do).
As it would have been in Shakespeare’s day, the audience are brought in on some contemporary jokes, and there’s more than an element of pantomime in the running gag of “He is a bailiff!” There are even real slapsticks!
Amongst a fine ensemble cast, the two Dromios (Blake Kubena and Ryan Bennett) deserve special mention, as does Amanda Billing, who is excellent in her role as Emilia, the Egeon’s long-lost wife who now lives as an abbess and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
If it sounds silly, and just a tad crass at times, well of course it is – but that’s why it’s a comedy.
The Merchant of Venice and The Comedy of Errors Pop-Up Globe productions are at EQ, Moore Park, Sydney until November 11.
