The Comedy of Errors (Vol. 26) | Reviews And Retrospective Accounts Of Selected Productions
REVIEWS AND RETROSPECTIVE ACCOUNTS OF SELECTED PRODUCTIONS
PRODUCTION:
Gray's Inn 1594
BACKGROUND:
The earliest evidence of a performance of The Comedy of Errors is found in the Gesta Grayorum, the records of Gray's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court in London which trained young men for the law. According to the Gesta, the students of Gray's Inn held nightly revels during the Christmas season of 1594; the festivities included banquets, dancing, masques, and plays. On Innocents' Day (28 December), a performance of a play, described as a "Comedy of Errors (like to Plautus his Menechmus)," was given in the main hall by a company of actors. Theater historians have long assumed that the performance was by Shakespeare's acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, though this is open to dispute. Modern commentators have suggested that another professional company or even student players may have enacted the...
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