Writing Question

Performance : The Comedy of Errors

The Production Elements of The Theatrical World The production elements in the theater world are significantly important that no matter what the play is about, the message cannot be received by the audience without the production elements. Other than writing the play, almost everything else in the play is a production element. How the lights in the play tell the audience if it is night or at daylight is an example of the production elements. Other than lights, we have props which are basically are the things that are being used for a moment and not part of the customs and the stages such as a phone in the actor’s pocket. There are many other important types of production elements that help to make the audiences get a better message such as Staging, costumes, sounds, acting, and a set design. All of the production elements work together in harmony to enhance the outcome of the play and to deliver the best version of the play to the audience. “The Comedy of Error” is the shortest play that is done by the famous William Shakespeare. The Clapham Community Project version of the play which was played in the year 2009 in London features many aspects of low-budget production elements in props, staging, and sounds.

One of the things that attracted my attention is how a 19th-century play would use a colored newspaper, after knowing that the play is meant to be a low budget it became understandable that the colored newspaper meant that the rich son was meant to read a 19th – century newspaper at the beginning of the play. Furthermore, the use of an old phone in the play was a good idea to tell the audience that the slave and his master communicated somehow rather than meeting each other, even though there were no phones at all in that era. The microwave also was used to tell how busy and angry the mistress was since the mistress just heard out her husband was about to cheat on her with the mistress’s sister, so she just made a little food using the microwave instead of cooking as usual due to her anger. Additionally, a speaker was used when the slave was looking for his master, the speaker demonstrates that the slave went somewhere far and worked hard to look for his master since there was not much of a space on the stage. Finally, a pack of flowers that are made out of a newspaper has been used instead of real flowers, which can tell the audiences that the newspaper at the beginning of the play was then used to make a pack of a flower.

The staging has a very low budget since almost nothing in it. The props that were mostly used were hidden beneath the wooden stage. At the beginning of the play, when the father who lost his twin son, twin slave, and his wife was jailed in a fridge, and later then the slave and his master were also jailed in the fridge, which concludes that the fridge was meant to be the jail all along with the play. Moreover, since the stage was small and the actors have to tell where the play is happening, the mistress’s husband was used as part of the stage by acting like he is a picture in a wall to tell audiences that the play is happening on the mistress’s house.

The sound effect that has been used mostly in the play was made by musicians. For example, when the Mistress’s husband tried hard to enter his house since his wife did not open the door for him, the sounds of the keys clacking inside the door lock was done by one of the musicians to tell how hard and serious the husband is working to enter his own house. Furthermore, sad music was played when the slave was trying to explain how loyal he was to his master which demonstrates that the slave was sad and the words that are coming out of his mouth were straight from his heart.

In conclusion, the production elements are the main key to demonstrating how and what the play is trying to tell. “The comedy of Errors” by Shakespeare features many low-budget production elements that make some audiences get lost about some parts of the play. As the play goes on, the audience would understand what the elements are about. For example, a man coming out of a fridge with handcuffs, as the play goes everyone gets out of that fridge is handcuffed, and then the audience realizes that the fridge is meant to be a jail. The play also features many elements in customs, acting, and set design.