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Comedy of Errors

After Hamlet by the Lake, it's Shakespeare on the Beach. The latest venture by Bath Spa University's Full Tilt Theatre Company promises to be its boldest and most original yet.

For a new production of The Comedy of Errors, part of the University grounds is being transformed into a continental holiday resort. The play, which features third year performing arts students alongside professional actors, will then go on tour to Cornwall, Stratford and the United States this summer.

Following their sell-out adaptations of Hamlet and Macbeth in 2006 and 2007, Bath Spa Head of Drama Gunduz Kalic and Director Emma Gersch have once again collaborated to dream up this unique version of The Comedy of Errors, starting on 20th May. They have set it on a Greek island resort, creating all the razzmatazz of a modern package holiday, with a wink to the evolving culture of 'Brits Abroad'.

Once again Full Tilt will use the stunning grounds of Bath Spa's Newton Park campus to maximum effect. This time the space in front of the site's medieval Castle is being converted into a Mediterranean resort, complete with beach activities and stalls, ready to host the 'holidaymakers' for a memorable outdoor event.

A chorus of resort reps will welcome you to an early evening reception of Greek food and music, belly dancing, dressing up as Greek gods, plate-smashing and other similar entertainment. There will be water aerobics in paddling pools, a sunbathing area, crazy golf, barbecues and, as an extra authentic touch, pushy sales people trying to sell you time share!

Adding even more to the fun, on arrival every member of the audience will be offered, with their ticket, a face mask portraying a character in the play or one of the cast's own family. The idea is to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of Comedy of Errors by changing your own identity for the occasion.

The play will follow this event. It's a riotous romp about mistaken identity revolving around two sets of twin brothers, which will be staged inside the University Theatre, while continuing the holiday resort theme.

The Director, Emma Gersch, says she is trying to reach back to the most ancient roots of the theatre tradition, where audiences gathered to be a community for a shared experience. "We seek nowadays to isolate ourselves, and detach from community, listening to ipods, staying in our own little bubble. We are forgetting how to have fun with strangers!

"By going back to the ancient tradition of collective communal experience, there is a tangible sense of cohesion among the audience. Empowered by a new identity, the audience will hopefully feel free to play alongside our players."

Emma chose to set the play in a modern resort because this is a perfect backdrop for the action and the characters of The Comedy of Errors. She says the environment is universally recognizable, the idea having come from her own experience of holiday hell on an all-inclusive package holiday.

This special version of Comedy of Errors, like Full Tilt's Hamlet and Macbeth previously, was adapted by Head of Drama Gunduz Kalic. After performances at the University on 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 May, it goes on tour.

The production has been invited to two open-air venues in Cornwall's Sterts Theatre near Liskeard, on 5 and 6 June, and the legendary Minack Theatre near Penzance on 9, 10,11,12 and 13 June. It then features in the Royal Shakespeare Company's outdoor Summer at the Dell Season in Stratford on 28 June. Finally, the students will be taking their Comedy of Errors to the United States for five performances at a theatre festival in Virginia during late August and early September.

Emma said: "This is a brilliant follow-up to our Hamlet and Macbeth. With many of the same actors, it will provide another radical, innovative and ground-breaking experience for the audiences and young cast alike.

"For our students to perform at this professional level, in places like the Minack and the RSC, is a fantastic opportunity and well-deserved recognition of the talent Bath Spa's School of Performing Arts is nurturing."

9:38am Wednesday 7th May 2008

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