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Title: The Comedy of Errors
Series: ———-
Author: William Shakespeare
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Play, Comedy
Pages: 272
Format: Digital Edition
| Synopsis: |
20+ years ago, a family with twin sons and a servant with twin sons, were separated at sea. Now they all come together in the city of Ephesus and mistaken identity comedy errors ensue. With a lot of beatings for the servant twins, who both can’t seem to keep their mouths shut.
The error is realized and everyone ends up happy. The End.
| My Thoughts: |
This completely did not work for me as a read. The humor was not funny on the page nor did the situational humor do a thing for me. I kept wanting to shout “Somebody USE YOUR BRAIN!”
I can see this being very funny if acted out, much like a 3 Stooges scenario. But those wouldn’t be funny either on paper. The actors are what make the situations funny, not just the situations themselves.
I also don’t find humor about marriage funny. Me and Willy have very different outlooks, that is for sure. That doesn’t stop me from being glad to read this or to appreciate it. I just don’t like it * grin *
★★☆☆½
I never even heard of this
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There are a lot of Shakespeare’s plays that I’ve heard the name of but that is about it. One of the reasons I’m doing this whole Complete Shakespeare thing 🙂
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Ill, read it someday… i can quote a bit of romeo tho, a whole 4 lines or so
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Well, that is more than I can do 😀
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I’m sorry to read this one doesn’t do well in the written format! When I was in high school we took a field trip to see this play and I was gasping for breath in-between the constant laughter.
A couple decades later I noticed a theatre in my area doing the play and I went to see it, but they took a different approach that I didn’t find nearly as funny. Maybe part of it was that I was older, I don’t know, but I can see how it wouldn’t read well without some actors hitting the right tone to make it funny.
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And apparently WP ate my comment! Son of a gun…
The comedies seem to be tailor made for the stage, just like The 3 Stooges. Hilarious seeing acted out but not so much written down. I suspect I would be horrified at a 3 Stooges transcript 🙂
I am working my way through the comedies first and I have a feeling this is going to be a recurring thing for them. I’m hoping things will pick up once I get past them. But that will be quite some time 😀
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Now I want to see one of those things where an AI writes a screenplay, after it’s trained on 3 Stooges scripts.
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Oh man, can you imagine that? And it would be completely serious as the concept of humor would not be grasped.
Oh wait, isn’t that what John Wick is? 😀
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Perhaps this is like The Cursed Child–better onstage than in print. The plot doesn’t sound particularly interesting to me. At least that’s another one of Shakespeare’s works under your belt 🙂
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Yeah, I certainly don’t feel bad for reading this. It is always a good thing to read foundational texts…
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Sadly Shakespeare is like that: best onstage. I wonder if you’ll have the same problem connecting with the tragedies as you have with the comedies? I do think the tragedies translate to page a little better than the comedies do.
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I’m reading an omnibus ebook edition, otherwise I’d skip around. I should probably go see how many comedies there are so I know how long to hold on for 🙂
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That would be good to know. I’d definitely try a tragedy before giving up on Shakespeare entirely.
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I love Shakespeare plays – his sonnets leave me cold because I’m not a fan of poetry but the plays are awesome. That’s the thing though, they’re plays not novels. When I was studying them at school we’d split into groups and read them out in parts and they came alive. I think Shakespeare is meant to be heard rather than read
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This went into spam for some reason. Sorry about that.
I concur, he’s definitely not a novel writer. I’m almost tempted to watch a movie version right after reading, but that is more dedication than I care to have 🙂
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I hate it when that happens! Makes me feel really rude like I’ve ignored someone. If you can, watch return to the forbidden planet in conjunction with the tempest – or it maybe the forbidden planet on film. The return to the forbidden plant is one of the most fun shows ever. Kind of like rocky horror where audience participation is a must! Both the film and the musical play make the tempest absolutely zing 😊
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I was the opposite, I thought the comedy worked well on page since I gave it 4.5/5*. Just another example of two each their own.
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Yeah, but I’ll still follow you online 😉
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I’ll do the same my friend 😉
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Well, it’s somewhat weird to see only two stars assigned to the Bard, but maybe (and I say that as someone who is not at all knowledgeable about his works) he did better with drama than with humor….
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It is more of a reflection on the medium I think than anything. These aren’t novels but I have to read them like they are and grade them like they are.
Thankfully I don’t have to worry about Willy rising from the grave to haunt me because I don’t like his stuff 😀
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Are you sure? And I mean *totally* sure?
(((wicked grin)))
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Well, if he does, I’m going to have to totally overhaul my whole belief system 😀
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This one of Shakespeare’s funniest plays. I’m sorry you did not dig it. Try watching the BBC version. Everything will look different. Having said that, it’s not one my favourite plays.
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I bet visually and aurally this would be a blast. A mix of the 3stooges and the banter of Laurel and Hardy.
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When it ain’t funny but it’s comedy… That must’ve been a relatively disappointing read. Hopefully a play adaptation for this would do the trick.
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The omnibus I’m reading lumps all the comedies together, all the tragedies, all the histories, etc.
I have a feeling it will be a quite the experience as I read all his stuff.
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