The Comedy of Errors

Saturday, 21 August 2010

A fantastically fast paced farce that completes its journey in one act, Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors involves a far slapstickier comical structure than his other twin confusion play, Twelfth Night, figuring that if one set of twins is funny, two will breed double the trouble and twice the fun! (I jest, as one of his earlier works; this Comedy far predates that Night.)

WAAPA’s third year Acting production is a stripped down show, relying on costume and minimal props to evoke time, place and character, updated to a contemporary but still unnamed era. Jeans are paired with sword sharp foils, Laura McIntosh as frustrated wife Adriana is Michelle Pfeiffer circa Tequila Sunrise, while Claire Lovering as her supportive and feisty sister Luciana is mod shift cute in a mini dress and headband. The twin slaves both named Dromio look like something out of Hi-5.

Egeon (James Monarski) opens the play with an emphatic and marvellous exposition giving the audience a familial tale of woe within the circle of players who then return to populate the town of Ephesus. Twin (unbeknownst to each other) master and servants make for much misunderstanding and merriment, and it’s a testament to director Adam Cook as to how well the actors seemed to enjoy living, breathing and loving the words of Shakespeare, as the continuous rhyming and even more outrageous sitcom rhythms are able to be given a relatably contemporary spin instead of descending into complete and utter silliness.

While the flogging of the slaves a times seemed a bit much (AVO alert!), as usual all is explained in the finale - family is reunited, lovers allowed to declare affection (though I suspect Adriana’s Antipholus of Ephesus is a bit of a cad and Luciana has gotten the better brother out of this deal); and the Dromios find some peace at last, Michelle Lim Davidson and Aileen Huynh both stealing their scenes through wit, sympathy and a wink through the fourth wall.

A fraternal fillip of fun.

Twelfth Night

Monday, 26 July 2010

Make of it what you will, but with one of the most famously rhapsodic lines from Shakespeare opening the play, “If music be the food of love, play on…” Black Swan Theatre’s latest comedic oeuvre from the bard continues the trend of updated delight from last year’s joyous Much Ado About Nothing, and washes us ashore upon the Mediterranean inspired resort location of Illyria.

The audience is delivered into a bright pastel zephyr-blue set split in the centre to not only give an alternate entry for the actors but to denote two houses, multiple locations, and of course a more obvious reminder of two halves torn asunder - twin castaways Viola and Sebastian, shipwrecked separately and mourning the death of the other.

Set designer Christine Smith has once again impressed with her intelligent use of space and suggestion, constructing a protruding boardwalk (white sand softly duned at the struts evoking the sea); a slightly unbalanced wooden stage – kingdoms constructed from ships; and later nautical allusions of large twined ropes, hanging installations that inferred trees; all set against textured backdrops of perfect sailing weather skies.

Kirsty Hillhouse as the glamourous Olivia, mourning the recent deaths of both her father and brother wallowed attractively, easily resisting Orsini’s (Kenneth Ransom) consistent advances and later thunderstruck when she falls madly in love with Viola in the guise of Orsini’s page, Cesario.

Hillhouse and Amanda Woodhams as Cesario/ Viola made a comical sight, their height difference even more pronounced as the Lady dashed about in tailored heels and espadrilles. Woodhams was utterly convincing in appearance as male page Cesario - add some wire-rimmed glasses and she’d be the spitting image of Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter - and she handled her lead role well, giving us a journey through her emotions, though I did find some of her monologues a little distancing; surprising, considering they are usually intended to draw an audience closer to the character by gaining an insight into their thoughts.

Smaller players Steve Turner as minstrel Feste, Luke Hewitt as happy drunkard Sir Toby Belch, scene-stealing Ingle Knight as the Walter Mitty-ish Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and obnoxious steward Malvolio, played with relish by Geoff Kelso were even more outrageous characters; a guffawing distraction from the more straight playing romantic comedy plot.

As is usual for a comedy, misunderstandings abound, and though there is the modern query of homoeroticism in the attraction between Orsini and “Cesario” (and in this play, a Sapphic hint when Olivia discovers the boy she is in love with is actually a girl), both couples end gender appropriately matched and with happy endings all round.

A sweet voyage in Shakespearean waters.