Staging the 'Lock-out' Scene in the Folio Comedy of Errors

Abstract

Act three, scene one of The Comedy of Errors presents a problem for directors: a considerable amount of dialogue must, it appears, be spoken through a locked door. This essay looks at the play's editorial history, as well as clues from contemporary stagecraft, to construct the most likely and most practical solution on the standard Elizabethan stage. Among the matters which must be considered are Dromio of Syracuse's "exit" at the end of the previous scene (when in fact he must remain present in some capacity); the nature of the door or "gate" through which characters must speak (simply the stage door or a more elaborate construction? Fitted with a grille or a hatch?); and the positioning of Syracusan Dromio, Luce the servant, and Adriana (all meant to be within the house) which best allows for clarity of space, efficiency of comic dialogue, and the continued near-misses of recognition that buoy the play along to its dénouement. The solutions arrived at here create a theatrical moment that is simultaneously paradoxical and triumphantly Shakespearean, imaginatively interpenetrating the outside and inside spaces, with the audience as co-creator of the illusion.