What: Comedy of Errors.
When: February 13, 15, 17 8pm and February 19, 4am. 2000.
Where: Rhododendron Lawn, Hamilton Gardens.
Reviewed by: Hilary Falconer.
A medieval circus band, burning torches, bizarre costumes, the Moon and morepork behind the pines - it must be summer and Shakespeare at the Gardens.
The Comedy of Errors is ideal for al fresco theatre, giving much scope for yelling and being as silly as possible.
This comes naturally to the four main protagonists - Graeme Cairns and Nick Clothier (as the Dromios), Mark Houlahan and David Sutcliffe (as the two Antipholus) with Clothier more than holding his own with the old hands at loudness and silliness.
This is a play of mistaken identity, you know - twins, shipwrecks, wrongful imprisonment . . . the usual.
The twist Slip of the Tongue slip in, is to have the audience move rather than the scenery, since the scenery at the gardens is all around.
This moveable feast may have inconvenienced those with unfinished picnics, but it had the advantage of keeping the circulation going for those down on the car rugs.
Narrower in scope than other Shakespeare in the Gardens productions, this, coupled with the bawdy, punning, colloquial nature of the dialogue, helps make it one of the more verbally followable.
Cairns in particular delighted the sizeable audience with his interpretation of Dromio describing Nell, the overly-buxom kitchen maid.
It is exactly this kind of production which makes us realise why we still do Shakespeare, he ain't half a clever bard.