THE Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare's most light hearted plays and the Festival Players certainly did it justice when they performed at Poulton House, near Cirencester recently, as part of their summer tour.

Shakespeare is pretty keen on mistaken identity and he has a field day in this play, with two sets of identical twins on the loose, one of each in search of the other two.When Antipholus and his servant Dromio arrive in Ephesus they are unaware that their twins, who have the same name, live in the town.

Confusion reigns, with hilarious results, as the twins are constantly mistaken for each other: a wife is apparently denied by her husband, her sister is wooed by the man she believes to be her brother-in-law, and a conjurer, a courtesan, a duke, an abbess and a goldsmith are all embroiled in Shakespeare's brilliantly conceived farce.

The cast were all excellent and moved from part to part with ease so that it was hard to believe that seven people played more than twice as many characters. Full marks to director Michael Dyer for adapting the play to run so smoothly and also to Petros Amanual and Peter Gardiner who played both sets of twins with just a hint of difference.

There are no songs in the original play, but musical director Johnny Coppin, as one would expect, came up with some very melodious and suitable songs for this extraordinarily multi-talented company.

If you missed the play at Poulton, you can see it at Westonbirt School on June 28 (01666 880333), The New Inn, Gloucester from August 12-14 (01452 522177) and Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe from August 16-17 (01242 602308).