William Shakespeare wrote “A Comedy of Errors,” but the plot wasn’t his original idea!

Menaechmi (The Twin Menaechmi) Titus Maccius Plautus, commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. Mistaken identity and deception, either individually or jointly, give rise to the misunderstandings and complications on which the plays turn. Plautus appears to rely on earlier native Italian farces for the devices of trickery and impersonation Plautus got the idea from translating….

Plautus's comedies are mostly adapted from Greek models for a Roman audience, and are often based directly on the works of the Greek playwrights. He reworked the Greek texts to give them a flavor that would appeal to the local Roman audiences Greek Playwright Sophocles->

Shakespeare created a dramatic farce by using mistaken identity of two sets of identical twins. The only identifying feature is the geography attached to their names. Antipholous Ephesus (Master) Dromio Ephesus (Servant) Antipholous Syracuse (Master) Dromio Syracuse (Servant)

So where the bleep is that? Ancient Ephesus Ancient Syracuse http://www.ephesus.us/ephesus/ephe sus_location.htm http://www.italyguides.it/en/sicily/syr acuse

The city of Epidamium: An important geographical point in the backstory. Egeon (The father of the Antipholi) is Merchant from Syracuse is on a business trip to Epidamium Emiliana (The mother of the Antipholi) is pregnant and wants to be with her husband in Epidamium. While there, she delivers identical twins. (Antipholi) In the same hotel, a poor woman also delivers identical twins. Egeon and Emiliana adopt those twins. (Dromios)

As you work on your character card set you may want to use the following additional resource. https://www.digitaltheatreplus.com/study-guides/the-comedy-of- errors/relationship-map