Anne's Reviews > The Comedy of Errors

The story opens with this guy, who is maybe about to be executed, telling a sad tale about the search for his missing family, in an effort to explain to the duke why he is illegally in his city. <--this shit is nuts, let me tell you.
Buckle up.



So way back in the day, his lovely wife gives birth to identical TWIN boys. Because everyone knows Shakespeare fucking loves twins.
They also buy a set of newborn identical twins so they can grow up and be slaves to their own twins.
And in an act of complete idiocy, they name BOTH of their identical twin boys Antipholus, and BOTH of the identical twin slave boys Dromio.



Unbelievably, this causes problems in the future.
I know! Who would have thought?
The happy couple then goes on a cruise with the babies.
And like most cruises, things go terribly wrong.
Except instead of bedbugs or food poisoning, their ship starts to take on water.



The crew jumps in the boat meant for passengers and abandons them.
That's what you fucking get for hopping on a cruise ship, Susan.



The couple ends up each taking one Antipholus & one Dromio apiece, and then lashing themselves to separate masts while the ship swirls around in the storm.
And just when all seems lost?



What ho?! Boats in the distance?!
But before their ship gets close to the boats, a big ass rock (or something) cuts the ship in half, sending Dad & his half of the twins towards the boat headed in one direction, whilst sending Mom and the other babies toward the boat headed in the opposite direction.
NEVER TO SEE EACH OTHER AGAIN.



Stay with me here.
Our story picks up 30 plus years later, with one set of Antipholus & Dromio showing up in the same town that the other set of Antipholus & Dromio grew up.
What are they doing there, you ask?
SEARCHING FOR THEIR LONG LOST TWINS.
Now, it's not long before the visiting Antipholus & Dromio soon become convinced that this town is populated by witches and fairies.



Because how else are they to explain that everyone in this town thinks they know them? I mean, it's not like they're on the lookout for a town that has their identical twin goddamn brothers in it or anything.
So, yeah. William left a few plot holes in his story. <--it's ok. Roll with it, baby.



Now, the other Antipholus & Dromio are plagued by all sorts of problems that these visiting doppelgangers have unknowingly caused as they bumble through their city.
An angry merchant leads to a bit of jail time, and an angrier wife leads to an exorcism. The duke gets called in to referee, which allows the original old man to see the Antipholus & Dromio who don't know him. And that causes even more confusion. But then fate ushers in an abbess who has some pertinent information that might just solve the problem.
PHEW!



I listened to the full-cast audio that included Alan Cox, Brendan Coyle, & David Tennant.
I've said it before, but I highly recommend these full-cast audios because they're just chock full of fun stuff like sound effects and music that make the experience even better.