Cassi Roberts’s Messenger and Andrew Wrenn’s Egeon in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Project’s piratical The Comedy Of Errors. Picture: John Stead
IN Katie Leckey and Emily Carhart’s piratical twist on The Comedy Of Errors for York Shakespeare Project, the original text of Shakespeare’s “shortest and possibly funniest” play will be merged with slapstick, farce and physical comedy.
Opening tomorrow (21/10/2026) at Theatre@41, Monkgate, the production combines the directorial talents of Leckey, director of York company Griffonage Theatre, and Carhart, who worked with Katie on York Settlement Community Players’ staging of Joe Orton’s Loot and Griffonage’s showcase of Lady Augusta Gregory works, Fourtold.
In their opening statement, explaining the pirate overhaul, they say: “The morally questionable, yet still comedic, nature of many, if not all, of the characters put us in mind of some of our favourite piratical antiheroes.
“We felt like the framing device of piracy gave us the chance to include slapstick violence between ‘masters and servants’ in a way that wouldn’t seem too brutal or alien to a modern audience.”
Emily says: “We realised that we both wanted to pitch to direct this production, having become friends through working together, and so we chatted about it…
…“Two heads are better than one,” says Katie. “We wanted to use our individual strengths to look at different aspects to make a coherent whole, a well-rounded piece.”
The Comedy Of Errors co-director Emily Carhart
“Katie is more experienced in physical theatre and clowning, whereas I focus on the voice, text, relationships between character,” says Emily.
“It’s all in there anyway, where it begs for the comedy to be made physical,” says Katie. “Sometimes the physical just has to happen because otherwise a joke won’t land.”
Both co-directors were devotees already of Shakespeare’s “most farcical play”, the 1592 one with the two sets of identical twins. Why? “It’s just a really silly play,” says Emily. “In fairness, I think he intended it to be silly! It’s fast and zippy and a lot shorter than most of his plays, and when you unpick the language, it’s loaded with punchlines.
“It gives you a plot to play with because the characters are in a ridiculous situation and so you don’t have to take it seriously, but it’s written in a sophisticated way that uses metaphorical language. That said, it may be a controversial thing to say but it’s quite a surface-level play.”
Katie adds: “The reason I like it is because it’s a farce, and obviously I’m no stranger to farces [such as Orton’s Loot]. What drew me to it is that it’s such a succinct farce, whereas Twelfth Night and As You Like It are much longer and get muddled by having too many plotlines.
Ben Reeves-Rowley’s Solinus and Harry Summers’s Angelo in the rehearsal room for York Shakespeare Project’s The Comedy Of Errors. Picture: John Stead
“This play is cohesive, cut and dry, and that makes it easier to play with. There’s none of the weirdness of the ending of Love’s Labour’s Lost; nothing that doesn’t gel or make sense – and so I can just put slapstick in it!”
The pirate twist emerged in response to the “insinuation of domestic violence and adultery in the play”. “Characters are immoral or amoral – devoid of morals – which tonally didn’t meld with the play, so we thought, ‘how can we keep it as a light comedy?’, which led to pirates,” says Emily.
“Everyone has an idea of pirates, from Treasure Island, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Muppet Treasure Island, with all that swashbuckling flamboyancy of piracy,” says Katie, who will play Luciano, by the way. “It lightens the whole thing, with everyone knowing that pirates are into pirating and plundering, but everyone still likes them!”
“That’s why you buy into the convention that it’s fun and silly,” says Emily. “I think it also makes it more accessible to modern audiences because of the dynamics of ‘masters and servants’, so we’ve set it in the golden age of piracy,” adds Katie.
When? The end of the Stuart era/beginning of the Georgian era… “but we’ve added Victorian costumes too because of how people think of pirates in that time,” says Katie. “It’s very much a vibe, rather than historical accuracy,” says Emily, who will bring her puppetry skills to the show.
The Comedy Of Errors co-director Katie Leckey
The co-directors were keen to apply gender swapping to “make some things less unpalatable while still drawing attention to how sexist the text is”.
“We were intrigued by the lack of traditional gender and romantic dynamics in the play,” they say. “In Elizabethan culture, as depicted in many of Shakespeare’s plays, there was a more flexible understanding of physical and romantic intimacy between same sex partners, as well as a fluid approach to the representation of gender on stage. We feel our production is a celebration of relationships of many kinds, platonic, familial and romantic.”
Katie says: “We’ve made it a matriarchy, rather than a patriarchy. We also have a same sex couple now, which I was keen to do as it feels the perfect time to do it, without shoehorning it into the plot.”
Emily adds: “It’s interesting to see a woman play such an unpleasant character [Antipholus], when we’re used to seeing men playing the role, which makes it all the more jarring.”
Katie concludes: “People will hopefully accept what we’ve done with the play. It feels right, rather than forced, so I can’t see it being done any other way now!”
York Shakespeare Project in The Comedy Of Errors, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 21 to 24, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
High laughs on the high seas: York Shakespeare Project’s piratical poster for this week’s production of The Comedy Of Errors
Plot summary for York Shakespeare Project’s The Comedy Of Errors
“AVAST ye landlubbers! Set sail for York Shakespeare Project’s piratical production of The Comedy of Errors!,” reads the invitation from directors Katie Leckey and Emily Carhart.
“The flamboyant captain Antipholus and flirtatious first mate Dromio arrive at the corrupt pirate isle of Ephesus to find that it has everything a salty sea dog requires: a tavern, a shipwreck, sea shanties, talking parrots, general debauchery and (of course) a whole lot of booty!
“However, things start to get very confusing very quickly, when both the captain and first mate don’t seem to be acting like themselves.
“In a plot laden with mistaken identity, colourful characters, swashbuckling action and a fair bit of slapstick, this be Shakespeare but not as ye know it.”
Who is in the cast for The Comedy Of Errors?
Antipholus of Syracuse: Helen Clarke
Dromio of Syracuse: Kat Lazarus
Antipholus of Ephesus: Laura Broughton-Janes
Dromio of Ephesus: Liz Duggan
Adriana: Ro Trimble
Luciano: Katie Leckey
Solinus, The Duke of Ephesus: Ben Reeves-Rowley
Egeon: Andrew Wrenn
Emilia, The Abbess: Andrea Mitchell
Angelo: Harry Summers
Balthazar: Grace Scott
Officer/Messenger: Cassi Roberts
Courtesan: Jacob Bassford
Dr Pinch/Nell: Jess Netherway
First Merchant/Nell: Stuart Green
Second Merchant: Thomas Jennings