Humour with a carefree zest

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, Lowry, Salford

YOU know that feeling when, every now and then, you throw caution to the wind and forget about trying to do what everyone thinks you should do?

That must be the sort of feeling director Edward Hall had when he came to put together this sublimely funny, brilliantly silly production of Shakespeare’s most farcical comedy.

Two sets of twins — one pair the servants of the others — were separated when young and reunite, not that they know it, in circumstances that cause no end of problems and a rapidly-escalating mistaken-identity incident until all turns out well in the end.

Normally the play is given an ancient Aegean setting or thereabouts, with lots of beards and sandals.

Not here: all-male company Propeller’s production comes to us from . . . Mexico, with sombreros and soccer shirts the order of the day, strings of festoon bulbs to light the fun and an on-stage band given to providing sound effects at will.

It is hard, though, to convey the sheer joy of the show as a whole: the company plays and sings, and in the interval there is even an impromptu foyer sing-along (OK, they probably do it every night) of a quartet of songs (Material Girl, Billie Jean, Who’s That Girl? and Sisters are Doing it For Themselves, not common in Shakespeare) that has crowds flocking round to listen.

We even got a rendering of The Girl from Ipanema to whisk us back into the infectiously silly mood as we returned to our seats.

And that’s not to forget the military-looking policeman who squeaks when he walks and the down-to-earth humour of every one of the other perfectly judged comedy characters.

On top of all this comes the impeccable comic timing of a company that has been playing the show for six weeks, tremendous energy and detail in Hall’s direction and his use of any device that might work (including slow-motion martial arts and one of the twinly pairs carted off in wheelie bins).

If you have any fondness for Shakespeare’s comedy you will never have seen it with such carefree zest before.

It might play a little better in the Lowry’s smaller theatre, but it’s still the best thing I’ve seen for months.