comedy of errors at the rsc

Over the past two years, Moira+I have been privileged to have seen six excellent plays by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford. Brilliant acting, sets and direction… just wonderful!

And for us, the huge bonus has been that we’ve been able to see Felix (our daughter Hannah’s husband) perform in all of these plays. On Friday night, we saw “The Comedy of Errors” (for us, the last of this season’s “Shipwreck Trilogy”) in which Felix was playing the part of one of the Dromio twins… and he was just brilliant! But don’t just take my word for it… Michael Billington, the highly-respected Drama critic, reckoned that “Bruce Mackinnon and Felix Hayes as the twin servants, boasts two of the best Dromios I have seen: the former all quivering apprehension, the latter brimming with goofy charm”.
Not bad eh?
It might seem strange but, despite the play’s comic nature, the background is one of cruelty. Ephesus is clearly a police state in which a captured merchant is subjected to water torture and bodies are unceremoniously dumped in canals!
But the Broadways and Billington were not the only ones impressed by Felix’s performance – these are just some of the other reviews I’ve seen:
“Comedy was effortlessly created by the cast. In particular, Felix Hayes in the role of Dromio of Ephesus built a rapport with the audience through gestures, exaggerated expressions and, at one point, rap and hip-hop dance”… and:
"The actors have uniformly great comic timing, particularly Bruce Mackinnon and Felix Hayes as the two Dromios. With their green beanies and Tintin quiffs, they bring a loveable, loose-limbed cartoonish quality to their pratfalls and misadventures"... and:
“With his leonine features and painfully endearing personality, Hayes threatens to steal an unstealable show. The pointing of his finger and pursing of his lower lip are sufficient to send even the sternest spirit into apoplectic laughter”.
We had a great time… once again, LIVE PERFORMANCE at its captivating, stimulating best.
Photo: the RSC programme (and a postcard from the RSC shop) with a main feature on the Dromio actors.
PS: We had a lovely time seeing Hannah+Ursula(+Felix) too!