We’ve seen a lot of Shakespeare in our time, although this week was our first opportunity to catch The Comedy of Errors – one of the bard’s earlier plays, it’s not performed as frequently as some of his better-known shows.
Having finally caught it, we can see why – it’s far from Shakespeare’s finest work. If you think you’ve already seen a stupid comedy or two, prepare for things to get a whole lot sillier – this is one of the daftest and most wildly improbable plays we’ve ever seen.
The Comedy of Errors contains all the usual Shakespeare comedy tropes, but this time there’s not just one case of mistaken identity – there are two.
The play follows two sets of identical twins, separated by a shipwreck, and unexpectedly reunited when the father of one pair of twins is faced with execution.