Bard’s Comedy of Errors gets 21st-century update
The Bard goes bonkers in the Phoenix Theatre’s newest production, a radical reinvention of William Shakespeare’s classic play on mistaken identity, The Comedy of Errors.
“Modern-day pop music and full-out musical numbers is not something I’ve ever seen before in a Shakespeare play,” said adventurous director Jeffery Renn. “It’s not your grandparents’ Shakespeare, that’s for sure.”
Indeed it isn’t. Renn injected a few modern-day inventions — including pop music by Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake, among others — into Shakespeare’s 16th-century farce, which is concerned with identity and the search for meaning. Though it was one of his earliest efforts, the play is a favourite of Shakespeare devotees for its deft handling of farce and slapstick. It’s all here, and told with a modern spin through the story of two sets of identical twins accidentally separated at birth.
Renn has always been fascinated by the question of identity, so he took the opportunity during The Comedy of Errors to explore the idea further — but with an unsual approach.
“How do kids today understand identity? Through their devices. They have been making meaning and performing to Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Facebook, platforms that have given them the place to perform a version of their lives. And they are framing it all the time.”
Renn used identity in the modern age as a way into The Comedy of Errors, but chose to let music do the talking.
Shakespearean verse becomes lyrics for several well-known pop hits in the University of Victoria production, one of the boldest in recent memory at the Gordon Head campus.
“There’s a youth vocabulary that exists only in music,” he said. “And this production is a stab at trying to understand what the voice of this culture is trying to say back to us.”
Renn frames the production in a way that is exciting for a younger audience.
Music videos and cutting-edge choreography also play a role in this reboot, which would have pleased the author undoubtedly.
Shakespeare would have wanted young audiences to continue enjoying his plays long after his death, Renn said, but modern productions have always favoured tradition over innovation when it comes to showcasing his work.
That often results in Shakespeare being a non-starter for inexperienced theatregoers.
Renn, a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, has done extensive work as an actor, where Shakespeare is concerned, with a resumé that includes productions at the Stratford Festival and on Broadway. He believes Shakespeare is due for a modern makeover, and feels he has put together a dream team of students for The Comedy of Errors. The UVic production feels like Mardi Gras at times, and with astute sound design by student Aidan Dunsmuir and nightclub accents from lighting designer Michael Whitfield, stuffy Shakespeare has never sounded this au courant.
“We have to find a way that addresses these plays in way that is visual, but allows that kind of access,” Renn said.