Richard III & A Comedy of Errors

Richard III & A Comedy of Errors showing @ King’s Theatre, Edinburgh until 26^th Feb, then touring

The all male troupe making up Propeller Theatre Company has gained a reputation over the last thirteen years for taking the works of William Shakespeare and putting some life into them. They don’t deal in stodge or the reverential, they take the bold, bawdy and sometimes bloody tales and give them back the vitality they had when they first were performed.

The two productions they’ve brought to the King’s Theatre are perfect examples of their method with the sauciness and panto-like energy of A Comedy of Errors contrasted and complemented by their black and darkly humorous take on Richard III.

Boisterous, rambunctious and a treat for eyes and ears; A Comedy of Errors is unlike any Shakespearean comedy you’ll have seen before. What Propeller understand is that the inventive but very silly plot gives them plenty of leeway for slapstick, smut and general clowning which, sophisticated though we might be, can’t help tickle our inner child. They stick to the text but not as rigorously as some companies might, avoiding much of the dullness this usually produces. Instead they do what Shakespeare himself did and let their clowns off the leash mixing the written words with jokes and songs of their own and adding non-stop frenetic physicality in for good measure.

This is theatre with the brakes off where nothing is sacred apart from the written word, so here we have nun-chuck wielding dames and fishnet wearing nuns alongside a holy roller healer and two Dromios who look like they’ve come back from Ibiza circa 1990. If you have any preconceptions about what Shakespeare means then this is your chance to leave them at the door and just enjoy the ride.

While Richard III doesn’t pander to any orthodox ideas of how to perform Shakespeare. Featuring a more polished Richard than we usually see the King’s asides are less snarl than whisper but this only makes you sympathise all the more with his homicidal reign.

Edward Hall‘s direction is fluid and imaginative handling the changes from gallows humour to decent into rage and madness with no discernible crunching of gears, which is matched by serious commitment from his actors who suck the marrow out of the text, savouring every juicy blood soaked line.

Michael Pavelka’s set, all scaffolding, hospital screens and plastic is the perfect environment for the cold hearted monarch to cut his swathe through the Plantagenet line, its flexibility allowing the company to move from plot to cunning plot quickly but with a gruesome elegance as well.

For those of us who’ve had to sit through hours of Shakespeare watching the words congeal in front of us a Propeller show is a genuine treat, performed by actors who are clearly passionate about the works and with a zeal to transfer that passion onto an audience they manage to do what very few are capable of and give those watching just an inkling of what it might have been like 400 years ago to see these works for the very first time.