Comedy Of Errors

The Comedy of Errors: A Convoluted Disaster.

Not all plays are created equally. When I reflect on the Comedy of Errors, directed by Jeffery Renn, I was expecting a thought-provoking modern take on Sir William Shakespeare’s famous play. However, what I witnessed on Saturday, March 24th, was a disastrous attempt to force modern pop-culture and a classic play together. In this critique of The Comedy of Errors, I will be focusing on the editorial direction and technical effects, and I will analyze how effectively Jeffery used these techniques. The attempt at modernizing A Comedy of Errors, while admirable was poorly executed. Shifting the setting from Syracuse and Ephesus to Canada and the United States and using modern pop references throughout

Unfortunately, instead of being engaging, they felt gimmicky and trite. For instance: act two started with a bizarre dance of neon skeletons. As an observer, I felt as this was a gimmicky way to extend the length of the performance. One strength I noted, is the idea of using the musical pieces to express the characters inner thoughts. This is an excellent idea for adding modernization since this play does work neatly with adding theatrical elements such as music. However, the execution was exceedingly poor: the parodies were awkwardly worded, for instance, their interpretation of “Bohemian Rhapsody” by the artist Queen. This iconic song was used to portray the Canadian Antipholus’s confusion over Luciana. At the time she was under the belief Antipholus was cheating on her. The choice of “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a poor one, as it felt as if they threw in lyrics to suit the play, but kept most of the original song which created a bizarrely grating final product. What the play did well, was the first act, when three musicians were playing upbeat music, which was reminiscent of what may have been included in an actual Shakespearian piece. At first, the trio played perfectly, but then one member who was playing a triangle was acting bored, and steadily became frustrated with his role, eventually playing an inappropriate string of notes before storming off. This was a brilliant part of the

Which made for a jarring contrast when it switched to the internal monologue/songs which are in modern day English. I feel like it would be not only more impressive, but it would have better flow if it was all in old English, instead of trying to jump from one style to the next. But that pales in comparison to the most egregious mistake that was made: The modernization of the play. I have no qualms about changing the time periods so long as it doesn’t create any holes in the plot. This is where I have an issue with the modernization of The Comedy of errors. Like I alluded to in the introductory paragraph, it left the audience with many unanswered questions, such as how Egeon managed to buy a pair of twin boys. He alluded to buying them off a poor woman, however in these modern times, it’s not that simple. While slavery does still exist, you certainly wouldn’t cavalierly mention your slave purchases in front of people of authority. What would fix the plot hole, is if the play was set in the 1812 - 1814 when the war between Canada and the United States was being waged. The reason for this is we certainly did have indentured child servants, who were most commonly bought and sold through the Hudson’s Bay Company. It would be simple to add elements of the HBC company to the set, for instance giving Egeon an HBC hat, and perhaps laying a blanket down