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28 June 2026
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5*****
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The Comedy of Errors is a play I have great affection for, as an example of farce it contains hints of Aristophanes and Commedia dell’arte and is the shortest of Shakespeare’s plays and one of the most accessible. Get a production right and you have a triumph on your hands. The Festival Players International production, currently touring, gets it right and it is a triumph!
With a cast of just five, the artifice needed to create a script which will work with such a number and how to overcome the undoubted hurdles that will be faced in doing so, without actually decimating the original play, is considerable. The achievement of this challenge is really something to be congratulated and it ensures masses of extra visual and verbal laughs along the way.
The extraordinary thing about this play is that it starts with preparations for the execution of a man, but it is, of course, his back story which is the basis for the play and the juxtaposition of tragedy and farce is never so well exploited.
With a simple setting and natural lighting (this was an outdoor performance) the (largely) black and white costumes (by Andrew Rawle)  are a hark back to the aforementioned Commedia and they work perfectly both from a visual aesthetic to the practical need for a means to identify the two central pairs of twins – which, in this production, are played by just two actors – a device of genius.
Punctuated with some super, appropriate,  songs composed by Johnny Coppin, there is so much to admire here and the audience are royally entertained. Director, Cary Crankson, has a production which fizzes along at an almost breathless pace and which is clear, faithful and inventive – when, occasionally more than five characters are needed, hats are a great stand in and the meeting of the two sets of twins at the end is so cleverly achieved. It is a joy.
As both Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus, Ray Murphy creates two very different characters with just a different coloured cloak and a pair of sunglasses; he speaks the Bard’s line with such clarity and with obvious understanding that it is a deep pleasure to hear; his blood vessel-bursting summing up speech at the end is an entertainment all of its own. He also offers a great deal of physical humour, not least the fierce beating he dishes out to Dromio (who at that point is not present). Likewise Ross Samuel inhabits both Dromio’s and his sense of the physical creates plenty of laughs and engenders plenty of sympathy for the abuse he receives at the hands of everyone. Christopher Commander presents the haughty Adriana with poise and great elegance and moves with a seductive, sensuality speaking the words with a glorious lucidity. In addition he is able to display his mime skills as a warm-up man and in a variety of other roles. Likewise Peter D Vicson demonstrates his versality, making the most of his height and comedic skills as the disapproving, but flirtatious, Luciana as well and as other characters including a wonderfully ludicrous cameo as Dr Pinch. With the one of the only straight roles in the play, Aegeon, Mark Spriggs is also able to showcase his breadth as a performer by adding in the grotesque Nell and the Abbess – and, not least, singing and accompanying all on the guitar in the most wonderful way.
This is a real treat of a production which is created and performed with great skill and dedication to the material and to providing entertainment – nothing more can be asked of a theatre company. The result is that the audience are treated to a really hard-working travelling troupe of players and a top notch show.
Cast
Ray Murphy – Antipholus of Syracuse & Antipholus of Ephesus
Ross Samuel – Dromio of Syracuse & Dromio of Ephesus
Christopher Commander – Gaoler. Adriana, Merchants, Courtesan
Peter D Vicson – The Duke, Luciana, Merchant, Angelo, Pinch
Mark Spriggs – Egeon, Luce/Nell, Officer, Aemelia/Abbess, Messenger
Creatives
Director – Cary Clarkson
Musical Director/Composer – Johnny Coppin
Marketing/Social Media Manager – Rosie Hastings
Costume Designer/Maker – Andrew Rawle
Image – Festival Players International
