Kitschy take on Shakespeare

This Comedy of Errors is rollicking fun, writes Marianne Thamm

CAPE TOWN

THEATRE

The Comedy of Errors Where: Maynardville Open Air Theatre, Wynberg, phone Artscape Dial-a-Seat on 0214217695When: Until February 18

FOR his debut at the Maynardville Open Air Theatre, innovative director Matthew Wild has pulled together a pastiche of popular Western notions of the "East" to frame this Shakespearean farce about mistaken identity.

With 1970s kung fu movies, pop hits such as Charles Douglas's disco dance tune Kung Fu Fighting , Alphaville's 1984 Big in Japan , David Bowie's 1983 China Girl as well as a few references to contemporary animation (the adorable actor in the panda suit lolling about the stage), Wild brings a kitsch, young and playful edge to one of Shakespeare' s earliest plays.

The Comedy of Errors is more of a farce than a comedy, starting with a case of mistaken identity and proceeding with loads of entrances and exits and much hilarious confusion on stage. Shakespeare pimped up an original comedy, The Brothers Menaechmus, by the Roman playwright Plautus, adding another set of twins to the story and quadrupling the opportunities for fun.

Shakespeare colludes delightfully with the audience letting us in on the story of a separated set of identical twins. When Antipholus of Syracuse (Nicholas Pauling) and his slave Dromio (Rob van Vuuren) arrive in Ephesus things begin to go maddingly pear-shaped for Antipholus of Ephesus (Andrew Laubscher) and his slave Dromio (James Cairns).

Wild has assembled a cast of accomplished local stage talents including Stephen Jennings (as Egeon, father of the Antipholus twins) and Chi Mhende as the Duke of Ephesus, Solinus who later doubles up unrecognisably and hilariously as Nell, the lusty kitchen maid.

Great comic talents on stage include Sonja Esqueira as Adriana, the devoted but unsettled wife of Antipholus of E and a sort of cross between Lady Gaga and Uma Thurman's character in Kill Bill. Esquiera, who won a Best Supporting Actress award in 2004 for her hilarious rendering of the Duke of Milan in Two Gentlemen of Verona, does it again, this time playing Adriana with a perfect mix of confusion, raunchiness and righteous indignation.

But the night belongs to Rob van Vuuren and James Cairns as the Dromio twins. Both men are fine clowns and physical actors. Here they are like Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, like Laurel and Hardy or all the other great comedy acting partnerships. Their timing is spot-on and their energy perfectly suits the slapstick and farce. The two actors are responsible for some of the biggest laughs of the night.

The Comedy of Errors is about two hours long and while the first half takes a while to warm up, the second half roars along at a rollicking pace.