Everyman Theatre

The Comedy of Errors is generally assumed to be one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, perhaps even his very first. It is also his shortest! Although its emphasis on broad slapstick rather than verbal humour has led many critics to term it an "apprentice comedy" – conflicts between bondage and liberty, law and sympathy, death and rebirth all form darker threads within the play.

Its first recorded performance was on 28 December 1594 at the Gray's Inn Christmas Revels and over the years it has been adapted for opera, stage, screen and musical theatre. This will be only the second time the play has been staged by Everyman as part of the Festival, the first being exactly 20 years ago in 1991 at Dyffryn Gardens.

The play tells the story of two sets of identical twins that were accidentally separated at birth by a shipwreck. Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant Dromio of Syracuse, arrive in Ephesus, which turns out to be the home of their twin brothers, Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant Dromio of Ephesus. When the Syracusians encounter the friends and families of their twins, a series of wild mishaps based on mistaken identities lead to wrongful beatings, a near-seduction, arrest and imprisonment and accusations of infidelity, theft, madness, and demonic possession!