THE COMEDY OF ERRORS National Theatre/Olivier

You will remember in his epistle to the Ephesians St. Paul said that wives should submit themselves to their husbands, which may be one reason why this crude farce goes down better with men than women. The comedy, which is set in Ephesus, once notorious for its lasciviousness, ribaldry and drunkenness, has the most boring exposition in all Shakespeare; even more boring than Prospero’s monologue in The Tempest, which is saying something; and the director, Dominic Cooke, does not make it any the easier to listen to the actor by illustrating what he is saying with distracting mime by the rest of the company in a toweringly ugly set. Shakespeare improves on Plautus by having two sets of twins, which should, in principle, double the manic fun in its confusion and disorientation. The present production, despite the presence of Lenny Henry, is dreadfully unfunny. I have often wondered if a master farceur, such as Ray Cooney, could breathe some life into the comedy. Trevor Nunn, in desperation, once turned it into a musical.