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Comedy of Errors

 
Richard Beck Review by Richard Beck 5 Published: 2 Dec 2025 Courtyard Theatre - London Show Dates: 26 Nov 2025-20 Dec 2025

The annual Intermission Youth Theatre production is always a highly anticipated and rewarding event. Those of us who have been attending for several years know we will be in for an evening of joyous entertainment from a new cohort of 16 to 25 year olds who have completed the 10 month programme that is an accessible alternative to drama school for burgeoning actors and creatives. Shakespeare will be stripped back, reimagined and remixed. The everyday language of the Bard will blend with modern street English and become a universal means of communication.

Shakespeare will be stripped back, reimagined and remixed.

This year’s choice from the Bard’s collection, performed in their new location of the Courtyard Theatre, is The Comedy of Errors, rewritten with the customary flair of the company’s artistic director Darren Raymond to create A Comedy of Errors Remixed. Perhaps not an obvious choice, but as always the modern relevance of the play is drawn out.

The original is set in the Greek city of Ephesus, which the citizens of Syracuse are forbidden to enter under penalty of death. Chaos reigns when two sets of identical twins, who were separated at birth, unknowingly end up in the city, giving the play a farcical element. None of this is lost in the current production, which wholeheartedly embraces the confusion of mistaken identity, the importance of family and the wider issues of immigration, displacement and what Raymond describes as “worsening attitudes towards the ‘other,’” pointing out that “members of our cast are second and third generation immigrants and still struggle to feel British.”

Set in London, we follow two asylum seekers, Anthony and Dominique, who arrive in the UK having escaped conflict in their home country. We witness their struggle to assimilate as they navigate language barriers, prejudice and mistaken identity, eventually reconnecting with their long lost identical twins whom they believed to have been killed in a civil war 20 years earlier but who had actually escaped to the UK.

A special feature of this year’s production is the direction by Stephanie Badaru, who was in the first group of young people to participate in the company’s programme in 2008 and is the first alumnus to face the challenge of directing two casts who switch lead roles and chorus on alternate nights. With a multi level functional set by Constance Villemot and lighting by Rajiv Pattani, she has created a play with pace, energetic interaction and scope for the young cast to demonstrate their abilities. She is assisted by associate director Federay Holmes.

As always, it is a thrilling multi ethnic production, created by an enormous amount of teamwork and passion, that inspires hope for the future of theatre.

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The Blurb:

Forced from their native homeland of "Shakespeare", Anthony and Dominique seek asylum in the UK. Unbeknownst to them, their identical twins (who they believed to be dead) are also residing in the UK. To confuse matters further, both sets of twins share the same name.Only speaking Shakespearean, the twins are quickly mistaken for their London twins who speak only Street, causing chaos. Comedy of Errors Remixed is a hilarious reimagining of Comedy of Errors clashing today's and Shakespeare's London mayhem.Catch the professional debut of Intermission Youth's cohort, emerging from a 10 month program dedicated to empowering young artists.This production is perfromed by two casts. See theatre website for details.

Pay-What-You-Can tickets will be available for performances on Tuesday 2 December, Wednesday 10 December, and Tuesday 16 December. These tickets can be purchased in person at the Box Office, which opens 45 minutes before the performance starts. cxxc