June 6-11th - The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare and Sweet William by Alan Plater. Northern Broadsides Company at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough by Patrick Henry

These two works played in a week of repertory constitute essentially company productions, without star actors nor prominent leading characters, giving all-round strength to the enterprise, but also some weaknesses. It is absorbing to watch how the actors from the classic comedy are deployed in the cast of the new Plater piece.

The dispossessed paterfamilias of Errors, (Aegeon), becomes Jack, the Falstaff figure of Sweet William: a continuation in the sense of a seasoned veteran giving weight to the action; but a contrast in the way that Aegeon is the least comic figure in Errors, whilst Jack is inevitably the most witty and ironic contributor to Sweet William. This apart, there is a strong sense that Plater composed his piece for this company, so that the cast from the classic all slotted into their parts in the new play. This is most evident in the identical twin brothers from Errors (S. Antipholus and E. Antipholus) becoming identical bellows-menders (Mark and Matthew) in Sweet William.

Their earthy, robust, estranged mother, Abbess Aemilia, of Errors, becomes landlady of The Boar's Head Tavern, their local haunt, so still continues her maverick mothering over them.

Of the estranged twin servants from Errors, E. Dromio becomes a pickpocket and wrestler in Sweet William; while S. Dromio transforms to Shakespeare himself, the title role of Plater's work. Two aristocratic friends and patrons of the bard in this piece, are played by those who acted Balthazar, a scheming merchant, and Adriana, wife to E. Antipholus, in Errors. These latter three roles and the casting of them seem to compound the weakness of Sweet William, and the company-engendered factor in its creation.

Will, arriving halfway through the play with his posh friends, is a wimpish, fence-sitting opportunist, once running with the hare of his roguish tavern pals, but now also riding with the hounds of his high-up admirers. The betrayal aspect of this is reminiscent of when Prince Hal has to turn away from Falstaff and his gang in King Henry IV, but the trouble about this moment in Sweet William is the lack of gravitas, conviction and detail in the writing of the parts.

Here, Will and his aristo guests are cardboard figures, two-dimensional as the Boar's Head inn-sign which is being erected. Plater misses an opportunity to probe deeply the relation between the triangle of upper and lower classes and of the famous author. Later stages of this play fade to ordinary, shallow comedy. The actors of Adriana and S. Dromio, among the most brilliant contributors to Errors, are wasted here, with few good lines or action provided.

Otherwise in Sweet William, Big Mac the wrestler, Peter the Painter (a functionary at The Tavern) and the Ariel-like Clown, are fine characters well-played by the actors who are The Mind-Doctor, The Duke, and Luciana, sister to Adriana, in Errors.

The first act of Sweet William resounds with the robust bawdy wit of Henry IV itself. Devising versions of the rude mechanicals of Midsummer Night's Dream works well importing them here. Playing The Comedy of Errors in modern dress emphasises how Ephesus is now an Aegean holiday resort, where under a Costa Blanca-style breezy, consumerish normality there lurks a Levantine menace of intrigue, magic, police internment, shipwrecks, doppelgangers, identity-crisis and vacation mishaps. Rolled umbrellas brandished by the threatened protagonists instead of the swords of the original folio, succinctly convey the humour and appropriateness of updating the ambience and the costumes to modern-day setting.

A five-act play as short as this lends itself to playing at headlong speed, yet retaining the definitions and intricacies of a bizarre saga approaching the compulsiveness of Hellenic myths. North Country accents emphasis the earthy humour and canny-mercantile provinciality of the original background. This excellent company play it with an earnest, threatened desperation which is the way to achieve full farcical effect.

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