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Such a shrewd choice

From the Ludlow Advertiser, first published Friday 20th Apr 2007.

By Michael Baws CONFUSION runs throughout The Comedy of Errors, this year's Shakespeare play at the Ludlow Festival.

For a start there are two sets of twins. Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus are slaves to another pair, each called Antipholus. If that's not confusing enough, the characters on stage can't tell which Dromio or Antipholus they are talking to while the audience has no doubt at all. The result is a single day of ridiculous misadventures, in which few things are as they seem.

The Comedy of Errors has never appeared at the Festival before but Ian Barge, former head of English and Drama at Ludlow College, thinks it's a shrewd choice. "It is fast-moving, with lots of physical and farcical action," he says. But he warns: "You can't afford to be purist with this play. You've got to be adventurous and less than respectful. You've got to go for visual comedy."

He is keen on director Glen Walford's idea of giving an Arabian Nights slant to the seaport of Ephesus, where the action takes place. "You can set it in lots of different locations and periods and it will still work."

Glen's fantasy Ephesus mixes "desert mirage to highlight the disorientation felt by travellers and citizens alike, with harbour comings and goings and Arabian Nights-style tent dwellings, which evoke both the transience and exoticism of foreign lands."

She plans to work with the creative team that made last year's Midsummer Night's Dream a big crowdpuller.

They include composer Carol Sloman and Ian's successor at Ludlow College, Kate Francis, who will be on the look out for belly dancers, conjurers and singers to evoke "the buzzy and populous atmosphere of a busy trading port."

Postal and internet booking for this and the other events in a packed Festival is already open. Booking in person or by phone is from May 8. The Festival runs from June 23 to July 8.

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