I remember thinking that ...
She doesn't get much of a run up at being as irate as when we first meet her.
She's already worked herself up into a bit of a frenzy
because she's been waiting a couple of hours for her husband.
We find out from Dromio that she's already beaten him
for something earlier in the day.
Uh huh.
[ Hedydd ] So she’s in quite a fraught state.
So that's kind of ...
That was kind of fun to discover just how …
How much energy she needs to bring into the scene from the beginning.
I kind of enjoyed being, you know ...
It's Luciana that starts with finishing all of my sentences,
with rhyming with me.
So she's annoying.
[ Laughter ]
Which is helpful.
Dromio comes in and then is also annoying
because he's refusing to answer my questions
about where my husband is and why he's late.
So it's just - it's quite a fun scene
of Adriana being wound up from different directions.
[ Avita ] The way that she expresses these views,
[ Philip ] A lot of rhymes.
Yeah! And there's something kind of learnt about it.
like something she's read somewhere or heard somewhere,
and not necessarily something that she's experienced herself.
I mean, we know she's not married.
So there's there's a bit of a ... nursery rhyme-esque quality to it.
And a kind of simplistic -
"This is how it is in nature and this is how it is with humans as well."
"And that's just - accept that."
Well, I suppose my closest reference point for having a sister
are some of my close girlfriends.
And you can become a bit bickery quite easily.
There's a solid foundation of love and care.
And actually, although Adriana doesn't agree with Luciana's reasoning,
I think Luciana is still trying to help her.
Whether she's going about it the right way or not.
I think you get her sisterly love through the fact
that she is trying to reason through this situation with her.
But it's kind of catty in a sisterly way as well, which is quite fun.
They know how to push each other's buttons.
Yeah.
And say exactly the right thing to rile the other up
and know each other's weak points.
I guess it helps you keep a pace on it.
[ Philip ] Why is that?
Because it's ... it makes you ...
It forces you to think quicker as the character.
Yeah. Definitely.
Parrying, and ...
It's a bit of ping pong, isn't it?
I've seen productions of Comedy of Errors
where I've struggled to determine that this scene was in rhyme.
Do you think there's a propensity with contemporary actors
to try and naturalize this stuff?
I think you think that in order for it to be real and relatable,
you have to make it sound like how how we talk now
with, you know, lots of pauses and colloquialisms.
Yeah, I think ...
I think you actually in attempting to make it natural and real,
you end up compromising the clarity.
I think if you're driving through to line endings
and hitting the rhymes that are there to help you,
the audience get much more meaning
than if you're trying to kind of spell it out for people in this kind of loose way.
Because often we have rhyming couplets at the end of scenes.
[ Philip ] Yes, that's right.
So arguably, Luciana is just trying to put a full stop on this conversation.
[Philip ] Very good! Very good. Brilliant.
That's a brilliant point, of course.
OK, let's imagine we don't know this scene, and we're going to ...
Just read us the the line and I'd ask you to put “two o’clock" together.
Returned. Master. Two o’clock.
Him. Dinner. Fret.
Liberty. Time. Sister.
Let's just play a little game now.
We'll go from the top of the scene again.
I want you to deliberately use those rhymes.
More than you maybe would want to naturally.
But to really use that rhyme in a really pointed way.
So this is the end.
So your objective is to end the scene with the rhyme and yours is to ...
... keep it in the room.
ADRIANA: Neither my husband nor the slave returned,
that in such haste I sent to seek his master?
Sure, Luciana, it is two o’clock.
LUCIANA: Perhaps some merchant hath invited him,
and from the mart he’s somewhere gone to dinner.
Good sister, let us dine, and never fret.
A man is master of his liberty.
Time is their master, and when they see time
they’ll go or come. If so, be patient, sister.
ADRIANA: Why should their liberty than ours be more?
LUCIANA: Because their business still lies out o’door.
ADRIANA: Look when I serve him so, he takes it ill.
LUCIANA: O, know he is the bridle of your will.
ADRIANA: There’s none but asses will be bridled so.
LUCIANA: Why, headstrong liberty is lashed with woe.
There’s nothing situate under heaven’s eye --
[ Philip ] Yes. Good, good, good. Good.
I suppose it intensifies the need to just nip this in the bud
and get off and ...
[ Philip ] Win!
... do my own thing - yeah, win.
And what about you, Hed?
Well, I sort of feel like ...
You can't - you can't just ... rhyme this away.
[ Philip laughs ]
Don't trivialize my marriage, please.
[ Philip ] Very good.
“You can't rhyme this away” is a lovely thought, actually.
That's a really nice thought.
It doesn't work in simple rhymes.
So why don't we just try this time,
very deliberately.
You're going to beat her again.
So you're trying the same trick again.
With the rhymes - really use them.
And then you consciously using those rhymes in that speech,
back at Luciana.
To talk to her about something complex.
In a way that ... she's going to understand.
ADRIANA: This servitude makes you to keep unwed.
LUCIANA: Not this, but troubles of the marriage bed.
ADRIANA: But, were you wedded, you would bear some sway.
LUCIANA: Ere I learn love, I’ll practise to obey.
ADRIANA: How if your husband start some other where?
LUCIANA: Till he come home again, I would forbear.
ADRIANA: Patience unmoved! No marvel though she pause.
They can be meek that have no other cause.
A wretched soul,
bruised with adversity, we bid be quiet when we hear it cry.
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
as much or more we should ourselves complain.
So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
with urging helpless patience would relieve me.
But if thou live to see like right bereft,
this fool-begged patience in thee will be left.
LUCIANA: Well ... I will marry one day but to try.
[ Adriana scoffs ]
Here comes your man. Now is your husband nigh.
Wow.
[ Hedydd ] That’s fun.
Alright. What happened there?
Well, letting myself really be affected
by those words and sounds and rhymes.
[ Hedydd ] And allowing myself to ...
not be such a terrible actor and discover it in the moment.
Rule 101.
[ Laughter ]
[ Philip ] Acting 101, right?
But that's what Shakespeare's doing all the time.
He's inviting you to get into the moment.
ADRIANA: Neither my husband nor the slave returned,
that in such haste I sent to seek his master?
Sure, Luciana, it is two o’clock.
LUCIANA: Perhaps some merchant hath invited him,
and from the mart he’s somewhere gone to dinner.
Good sister, let us dine, and never fret.
A man is master of his liberty.
Time is their master,
and when they see time, they’ll go or come.
If so, be patient, sister.
ADRIANA: Why should their liberty than ours be more?
LUCIANA: Because their business still lies out o’door.
ADRIANA: Look when I serve him so, he takes it ill.
LUCIANA: O, know he is the bridle of your will.
ADRIANA: There’s none but asses will be bridled so.
LUCIANA: Why, headstrong liberty is lashed with woe.
There’s nothing situate under heaven’s eye
but hath his bound in earth, in sea, in sky.
The beasts, the fishes, and the wingèd fowls
are their males’ subjects and at their controls.
Man, more divine, the master of all these,
lord of the wide world and wild watery seas,
indued with intellectual sense and souls,
of more pre-eminence than fish and fowls,
are masters to their females, and their lords.
Then let your will attend on their accords.
[ Adriana laughs ]
ADRIANA: This servitude makes you to keep unwed.
LUCIANA: Not this, but troubles of the marriage bed.
ADRIANA: But, were you wedded, you would bear some sway.
LUCIANA: Ere I learn love, I’ll practise to obey.
ADRIANA: How if your husband start some other where?
LUCIANA: Till he come home again, I would forbear.
ADRIANA: Patience unmoved! No marvel though she pause.
They can be meek that have no other cause.
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
we bid be quiet when we hear it cry.
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
as much or more we should ourselves complain.
So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
with urging helpless patience would relieve me.
But if thou live to see like right bereft,
This fool-begged patience in thee will be left.
LUCIANA: Well ... I will marry one day but to try.
[ Adriana scoffs ]
Here comes your man. Now is your husband nigh.