Sets of twins running madly around an audience, a business exchange that ends with jump-roping and fight scenes that weaponize farting. If you’re looking for a foolishly over-the-top good time, the UC Santa Cruz Theater Arts Department’s performance of Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” has it all.

The approximately 90-minute play, directed by UCSC professor of performance, play and design (PPD) Patty Gallagher, was based on a Roman play by Plautus called “Menaechmi” about identical twins who are separated at birth. 

Shakespeare expanded on this trope, making his version about two sets of identical twins.

Performances, all of which are sold out, ran Feb. 14-16 and continue through Feb. 20-23 at the eXperimental Theater in the Theater Arts Center. Tickets were free for UCSC students and discounted for anyone dressed as a twin. 

“One of the things that’s important to me about this play is that, although it’s very clever [and] very funny … at the center of it is a truly moving human story about a separated family,” Gallagher said. “It’s a story about separated families and looking for not just missing members of your family but, because it’s about identical twins, it’s about looking for part of yourself.” 

In the play, a woman named Antipholus and her servant Dromio travel from Syracuse to the Greek city of Ephesus. Unbeknownst to them, their long-lost twins — also called Antipholus and Dromio — live there too. Based on their mistaken identities, a series of hilarious mix-ups ensue.

“Think the world’s first ‘Parent Trap,’” said Celeste Lagrange, who plays Antipholus of Ephesus. 

The cast of UCSC’s “The Comedy of Errors” is mostly women and femme-presenting people. Femme cast members played male characters and masc cast members played female ones. Unlike in Shakespeare’s original written work, the two sets of twins were both women.

“It was really fun talking to the actors about how we’re doing gender, creating this kind of sisterhood thing,” said graduate student costume designer Sierra Wypych. “Having all of the [main] characters be women really flips the script of power.”

Because of the slapstick, almost cartoonish physical comedy, Gallagher also decided to set the play in the silent-film era. 

“Those movies that are big and dramatic and embodied the style of comedy from the beginning of the last century,” Gallagher said.

Upon entering the auditorium, audiences are greeted by a jaunty piano song and the image of a steamship sailing over Greece. A cast member pantomimes a safety routine à la Charlie Chaplin, the famous 1920s actor.

A merchant takes a swing at Adriana, the wife of Antipholus of Ephesus.

The costume and makeup departments played up these exaggerated movements and stylized characters with dazzling beaded flapper dresses, shining headpieces and dramatic makeup.

The set design also evoked the days of early cinema. A large wooden set piece painted in an art deco style, done by assistant professor of costume design Pamela Rodriguez-Montero, framed the stage with brilliant lights like those in a vaudeville actor’s dressing room.

A floor section at the base of the stage was painted in a checkered tile pattern, providing opportunity for the characters to run by, and interact with, attendees.

Adriana, mistaking one Antipholus for the other, wonders why her wife doesn’t seem to love her anymore.

Even the musicians and sound designers were actively immersed in the play, donning costumes at times, darting onto the stage and back to the piano or to making ridiculous sound effects. 

All of it makes for a raucous, laugh-out-loud production — not at all like reading Shakespeare in high school.

“[Shakespeare] feels very antiquated sometimes,” Sierra Wypych said. “I’m really happy that [the cast has] brought this to life and made it this actually attainable, readable thing that people can say ‘Oh I actually like Shakespeare. It’s actually funny. It’s actually relatable.’”

Over the course of the production, similar to the reunited characters, the cast became like a family themselves. 

For Celeste Lagrange and Madison Charles, who played the Antipholus twins on-stage and were born only a few days apart in real life, it made sense to be cast as identical siblings. They even added each others’ beauty marks on their faces. 

The twins meet face-to-face for the first time.

“I think after realizing the cast and how we were all going to get to be sisters, in a sense, [it] was really exciting because I love anything that’s dominated by femmes and also just celebrating sisterhood in a show that’s normally about brothers,” Charles said. 

That close-knit relationship between the cast and crew members was displayed at the beginning of each show when cast members dedicated the production to David Lee Cuthbert.

Cuthbert was a theater arts faculty member at UCSC for 25 years and the scenic/lighting designer for the production. He passed away on Feb. 11, three days before the show opened.

“David created this beautiful playground, but he passed away before he could ever see it come to pass,” Gallagher said. “It’s funny, it was very complicated because on the one hand it threw us all into the moment of, like, ‘In the face of such sadness, why make art? Why even do it?’ And on the other hand, ‘Oh my God, to survive this, to honor him, we must make art together immediately.’”

Eric Mack, the operations and facilities manager for the PPD department and a dear friend of Cuthbert, stepped into his role when he fell ill before tech rehearsals.

“When you watch the lights, you will see that they’re a beautiful thing,” Gallagher said. “But I want you to know that they are a gift from one artist to his friend.” 

“This show is a huge celebration of Cuthbert,” Charles said. “We do it for him now.”