LIPA Presents: The Comedy Of Errors

LIPA’s third year acting students under the direction of Max Rubin performed a rendition of the Shakespearean classic The Comedy of Errors on Thursday evening at the Sennheiser Studio Theatre.

From the moment you walked into the small space, you were met by the actors who filled the stage and greeted everyone as they made their entrance into the auditorium. I was pleasantly taken aback but immediately felt part of the proceedings. The stage was a traverse one where the audience was arranged on two sides of it. This was conducive for creating a very intimate atmosphere.

Act one was forty eight minutes in duration with an interval of fifteen minutes before the final act which lasted a further fifty four. The programme for the show gave a brief overview of the play, calling it a “farce with a noble heart. Balancing the supreme silliness of the plot with some of the most haunting and beautiful speeches in the canon, it is custard pies and poetry”.

For those of you familiar with the play, you will know that it is one of William Shakespeare’s shortest and most farcical comedies. It tells the story of identical twins who were separated at birth, Antipholus of Ephesus along with his servant Dromio and Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant also called Dromio. When the twins father Egeon of Syracuse is accused of breaking the law for entering Ephesus, he faces death for the contravention. However when Egeon tells the Duke that he is in search of his wife and one of his twin sons, who were separated from him 25 years ago in a shipwreck,he is granted a day to raise the ransom of one thousand marks. What ensues is a farcical series of mishaps resulting in mistaken identity, wrongful beatings, near-seduction and false accusations of demonic possession.

The vocal ability of the actors was incredible throughout as were the Baroque styled costumes designed by Anna Souter. The set designed by Frankie Bradshaw was simple but imposingly impressive.

I could not fault the performance, it was full of puns and they were delivered with precision and professionalism by each of the actors. The twin sons Antipholus of Syracuse and Ephesus (Jack Taylor-Wood & Joshua Meredith) along with their twin servants both called Dromio (Sindre Brathen and Amber Lee) had such a great energy  and stole the show. Similarly, Emily Chesterton (Adriana) and Sarah Folwell (Luciana) were equally as impressive. 

It’s astounding that the cast was made up of third year students; the quality was second to none and you'd think the actors had been acting for years in view of the high quality.  Even if you are not well read in Shakespearean literature, this is a must-see. It will have you in fits of laughter and you will be impressed by the entire cast. Congratulations to LIPA for an outstanding production. This was the first of four performances and it concludes on Saturday 7^th December.