Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors tells the story of two sets of identical twins who were accidentally separated at birth in the Greek city of Ephesus some time Back in the BC Day (that’s Before Christ, not Before Covid for those with short memories). Merchant sons Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus and their servants, Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus all play out a wild series of misunderstandings and mistaken identities in Shakespeare’s shortest comedies.
Are you with me so far?
I won’t describe the play any further you’ll be relieved to hear but wanted to remember John today because of his alarming decision to offer me the role of Dromio of Ephesus in the Rickmansworth Grammar School Play back in the autumn of 1970 AD. This was alarming for me because apart from playing a small walk on role of a gypsy in a primary school nativity some years earlier, this was the very first time that I had been drawn in to the magic of theatre and its community of performers, writers, technicians and audiences.
His suggestion that my long-standing school friend, Nick Hawkins and myself would properly act out the identical servants on a proper stage, wearing proper costumes and theatrical makeup and facing up to proper audiences of people who were composed of more than our immediate friends and family proved a transformational moment for me which shaped my life ever since.
Not only did we have to learn and repeat lines and make them sound the most natural conversations in the world, we had to find something in us which allowed us to play the fool. We’d had plenty of experience of that out on the school fields and even in the occasional biology class. We were burgeoning 14-year-olds, remember, and not averse to dissecting frogs to the refrain of ‘them bones, them bones, them dry bones’: but to be positively encouraged to play the fool, and get serious about comedy was something I certainly hadn’t encountered before.
As well as feeding us with inspiration which fuelled us for our careers and future lifetimes, John also provided steak and kidney pies from the local bakery every rehearsal afternoon after school: again, believe it or not, another unique experience for me. I don’t remember very much about the performances themselves other than I think we both did a pretty fine job of playing identical twins. Friends, family, teachers and even strangers applauded the production and we reveled in the lights, the sounds and the action. We both went on to other school plays, cast and directed by other English teachers, and then on into the wider world of theatre and the arts which has sustained us both throughout our careers.
Thank you, John, for introducing me to The Comedy of Errors: life’s had its fair share of comedy ever since but your early guidance and inspiration was one of the best things that ever happened to me. No error there!
RIP John Abbott, teacher and casting director extraordinaire.
