Die Irrungen oder die doppelten Zwillinge (Theatralische Werke in 21… (1623)

A fun farce. Its real saving grace is how short it is-- any longer and it might begin to strain your patience, but as it is, it sets up the baffling premise in a single scene, quickly delivers on promised shenanigans, and then builds and builds on that single comedic strain of mistaken identity in brief exchanges until everything crashes together at the end with even more coincidence. All set outside on a single street outside three buildings, it seems like a fun play to stage. Nothing especially deep here, just two sets of twins running around wreaking havoc. ( )

A musical adaptation of the play brilliantly done by Travor Nunn and the Royal Shakespeare Company. ( )

Our first selection for 'The Bard a Month Club.'

It wasn't too funny the first time I read it. Then after I figured out the language, I went back and read it more quickly and it was much funnier! It helped to get the rhythm down. You can see some very early seeds of the Great Shakespeare to come... ( )

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE:
No, he’s in Tartar limbo, worse than hell.
A devil in an everlasting garment hath him,
One whose hard heart is buttoned up with steel;
A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough;
A wolf, nay, worse, a fellow all in buff;
A backfriend, a shoulder clapper, one that
countermands
The passages of alleys, creeks, and narrow lands;
A hound that runs counter and yet draws dryfoot
well,
One that before the judgment carries poor souls to
hell. ( )

H1.31-4