The Comedy of Errors review – exciting and amusing but a touch as well manic | Theatre

Ephesus is really the spot. It has its title in stage lights and you only have to open a door to listen to the sound of wild partying. When it is time for a feast, somebody comes with a pile of pizza bins. It is brash, metropolitan and a little dodgy – the residence of wheeler-dealers and people who will maintain stumm for a selling price.

No speculate Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant Dromio glance as if they do not know what has hit them. It is not only the unusual accusations men and women maintain making towards them in this unfamiliar city, it is also the hectic rate of it all. Played by Angus Miller and Michael Guest, they are eager-to-be sure to travellers, all smiles and unguarded charm as they check out to get alongside with the locals. At a single level, Guest exhibits up with an “I Coronary heart Ephesus” tote bag.

How diverse to Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant Dromio. Played by the exact same actors at a change of one particular of designer Jessica Worrall’s peaked caps, these two are rough and worldly sensible. They handle attack as the ideal type of defence and are a lot more angered than bemused as the situations of mistaken identification mount up in Shakespeare’s comedy of confusion. Even when they meet their doppelgangers, they seem established to pounce.

Director Dominic Hill, returning to the engage in for the Citizens theatre after a Covid-curtailed run final yr, provides an exuberance of his possess to this tale of two sets of equivalent twins unknowingly at huge in the very same town. Carrying out in Scottish Opera’s short-term tented venue, the actors drift casually around the phase – and at times into the audience – breaking into the odd track and providing traces into microphones, standup design. There are touches of slapstick (even a custard pie), a managing gag involving a doorway buzzer and a modern-day-English plot summary to spare us the opening exposition.

It is enjoyment and generally amusing, but also relatively hectic. The consideration to detail is amazing, as are the significant-electrical power performances and the fluid staging. But the manic action can distract from the central story, which is shorter on comedian bewilderment. You breathe in the air of comedy far more than you basically snicker.

• At Stay at No 40, Glasgow until eventually 3 September Perth theatre,…