THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

"Propeller's collective ingenuity makes an evening that delights the heart as much as it stimulates the mind.

- THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Shakespeare's most farcical comedy but also his most perceptive, arrives in Madrid courtesy of Propeller, one of the UK's most internationally-acclaimed companies. Two sets of estranged twins, separated at birth after a storm, embark on their mutual quest. They eventually find themselves again in a Latin American-style town set in the 1980s. The result is a hilarious mix of mistaken identities and assumed personas. Familiar mariachi melodies encroach on to the stage helping to create a rioutous performance brimming with freshness and invention. It is a story which fizzes with irreverence and is punctuated with enough delightful twists and turns to invite an almost metaphysical reflection on the human condition.

Propeller is a company made up entirely of men, specialising in the performance of Shakespeare's works according to the Elizabethan style of the time, when male actors played all the female parts. Mixing a rigorous approach to the text with a modern physical aesthetic, the company works in a range of ways to integrate the poetry of the original play into the new production. Edward Hall, artistic director of Propeller, aims to rediscover the richness of Shakespeare's works in the contemporary world.

The Comedy of Errors was premiered in a double-billing with Richard III at Sheffield's Lyceum Theatre on January 28 this year to huge critical acclaim. The New York Times, for example, described the production as "stunning, brave and pure... Absolutely hilarious".

www.propeller.org.uk