Published: 01 July 2010
by HOWARD LOXTON

SHAKESPEARE'S play, set in Ephesus in Turkey, is about two sets of identical twins, a rich pair (both called Antipholus) and a poor pair (their servants, both called Dromio). 

They are separated as children but, grown up, one pair – servant and master – go looking for the other. When they turn up in the same town, not even the twins them­-selves realise they are encountering look-alikes. 

All is set for an escalating comedy of misidentification, but the opening of the play offers a tragic situation. 

Egeon of Syracuse, father of the Antipholuses, has come to Ephesus looking for the son he raised and has been arrested. As the huge Welcome to Ephesus poster that dominates the set of this production says, Syracusans are banned and liable to either a huge fine or execution. 

Can he raise the cash or will he die?

It is a slow opening while we are given the back-story but springs to life with the comic entry of the townsfolk. 

This Ephesus seems to be a Levantine French colony in around 1930.  

At first the comedy only simmers, but it  gets a life when one Antipholus bursts into song to woo the sister of the woman who thinks he is her husband. 

The look-alikes work splendidly with Joseph Kloska’s Dromio especially funny and delicious performances from Jo Herbert’s Adriana and Veronica Roberts as the Abbess who turns our to the Antipholuses’ mother. 

Until July 31 0844 826 4242 • Open Air Theatre, Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, NW1