Banter reviews 'The Comedy of Errors'

The Bristol Evening Post's monthly magazine for schools reviews 'The Comedy of Errors'

 

Banter, the Evening Post's monthly magazine for young people, has given The Comedy of Errors a huge thumbs up. Three school children came to see the production in March and thoroughly enjoyed the show.

Read the fantastic reviews below.

The Comedy of Errors

 

The Comedy of Errors is about the confusion created by two sets of identical twins. Other characters include a meek, yet charming guard, a beautiful, confident Courtesan an an outstandingly high maintenance mistress, Adriana, well played by Dorothea Myer-Bennett.

I am pleased to say that my first experience at the Tobacco factory was an enjoyable one, as I felt comfortable and fully engaged with the entire performance. The closeness of audience and actors enabled me to feel fully involved in the scenes that were played before me. I found the characters truly enchanting: the cheeky Dromio twins, light hearted and loyal friends to the more powerful Antipholus twins who – at the beginning – shone with pride but throughout the confusion gradually wore down to faded and vulnerable fractions of themselves.

The play was perfectly humorous with comedy stemming from slapstick style fight scenes, subtle facial expressions, odd mannerisms and even lengthy speeches where little could be comprehended yet much was understood. My personal favourite line – ‘I see two husbands’ – spoken by Adriana, wife of Antipholus of Ephesus, made me laugh out loud as the twins are first introduced to one another. I would definitely advise English literature and drama students to try and attend this play.

Ruby Mulvaney, Hanham High School

 The Comedy of Errors

 

On Wednesday March 30 we went to see A Comedy of Errors at The Tobacco Factory in Bristol. The play is meant to be one of Shakespeare’s most comical so we were excited to see what it was going to be like. It told the tale of two sets of twin brothers who had been separated at birth by unknowingly came across one another on the island of Ephesus.

The comedy was extremely well done and we were surprised at how well they pulled off all the jokes when the language was Shakespearean. It had the whole audience laughing for most of the performance and was commended by very loud and enthusiastic feedback at the end.

The production was set in the late 1800’s and the set had just a piano in the corner and four pillars.

Despite the lack of space and very few props, they still managed to show us easily where they were and there was never any confusion.

They also had live music from the piano and a violin which made it more realistic than recorded audio and helped to create a lively and energetic atmosphere.

The actors were extremely impressive: the two sets of twins looked very alike but the audience could see who was who whereas the actors “could not”.

The actors who stood out for me were Richard Neale and Gareth Kennerley who played the second set of twins, Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus. They won the laughter of the audience for most of the performance and they clearly had great experience and directing.

The scenes changed very quickly from one set of brothers to  another but the cast managed to carry it well and made each movement flow. Overall we really enjoyed the whole performance as it was a good laugh and just generally an enjoyable production. Catch it while you can at The Tobacco Factory until Saturday.

Jazmin Coles and Lily Moore, Year 10, Redland High

Production photographs by Farrows Creative