Amir Nizar Zuabi’s production of The Comedy of Errors embodies the internationalism of this year’s World Shakespeare Festival. Yet the Palestinian director holds out the promise of saying something interesting about trade and cultural dislocation, rather than delivering it.
Mistaken identity lies at the heart of the drama, though no one could possibly mix up the Antipholus of Ephesus and Antipholus of Syracuse that we see here; it’s never plausible that Stephen Hagan and Jonathan McGuinness are the identical twins they’re meant to be, and this compromises the effectiveness of their performances. There’s more satisfying work from Felix Hayes and Bruce Mackinnon as the two men’s twin manservants but elsewhere the acting is strident — cacophonous where it needs a lighter touch.
The interpretation often feels self-indulgent, full of gimmicks yet lacking coherent vision. Various contrivances suggest the darkness of a brutal police state but there are also elements that seem exuberantly camp. Zuabi’s usual poetic, even dreamy approach is lost among the jolting shifts of tone and some overly hasty verse-speaking. Despite splashes of appealing physical comedy, it’s a rather charmless take on a play that, amid farcical moments, can be a romantic, anguished picture of human vulnerability.
Until October 6 (0844 800 1110, rsc.org.uk)
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