[In the review below, Hampton discusses a staging of Trevor Nunn and Guy Woolfenden's musical version of The Comedy of Errors, directed by John Rando, contending that the production honored the spirit of the original play.]

When Ben Jonson eulogized Shakespeare as being not of an age but for all time, he had no way of knowing about the 1960's. But it has been the proof of Jonson's tribute that Shakespeare's plays have survived transportation to just about every decade since, although admittedly some travel better than others.

“The Comedy of Errors,” an early play that is about the closest Shakespeare came to pure farce, is one that travels especially light, and a campy and brash staging of Trevor Nunn and Guy Woolfenden's musical version by the director John Rando and the Acting Company offers a diverting evening, depending on how one might enjoy a night at a Hippie theme park.

The adaptation was first produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1976. Mr. Nunn, who was then artistic director at the R.S.C. and soon to make his fame in America by directing “Nicholas Nickleby,” “Les Miserables” and “Cats,” wrote lyrics cued by lines from Shakespeare's text to music set by Mr. Woolfenden.

In the Acting Company revival the irreverent tone is set in the opening scene and incorporates a grab bag of cultural cliches from the 1960's and 70's that takes several liberties with Shakespeare's text but keeps to the spirit of the play.

As the Duke of Ephesus, strutting like a cartoon Central American dictator complete with droopy mustache and reflector sunglasses, expounds the background, the entire cast hisses every time he mentions the word “Syracuse.” It gets progressively more rowdy as Mr. Rando and his energetic cast pull out all stops for laughs.

There are sight gags, pratfalls, costuming and lighting gimmicks, silly walks, tumbling tricks. One character reads Cosmopolitan magazine, another uses a can of hair spray, yet another takes a snapshot. The scene in which Antipholus of Ephesus argues with Dromio of Syracuse through a door is played over an intercom. Characters exchange high-fives and Dr. Pinch shows up in an Afro and tie-dyed robe with a voodoo doll around his neck. There is a running gag with a cat from an old James Bond movie; some business with a whip and gun is borrowed from “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and there is a long chase scene that Mack Sennett would have loved.

Needless to say, a lot of this has nothing to do with Shakespeare, and it occasionally veers close to being a sophomoric parody. But like Moonwork Theater's recent musical version of “Twelfth Night,” which was set in a 1940's nightclub and struck a similar vein, the cumulative effect is humorously contagious. The songs are mostly amusing ditties, but a couple of them aim at full production numbers reminiscent of rock musicals of the era.

The members of the Acting Company cast are clearly enjoying themselves and the performances are by and large good. Todd Cerveris and Michael Thomas Holmes as flower children versions of Dromio E. and Dromio S. take top honors, closely followed by Evan Robertson and Corey Behnke, each of whom could double as an androgynous rock star, as Antipholus E. and Antipholus S.

Michele Tauber, looking like Mama Cass in a tentlike blue paisley dress, is convincing as Adriana, and Beth Bartley, who could stand in for Sally Field in her hippie days, is credible as Luciana. Some smaller turns are especially good. Royden Mills is a delight as Angelo the goldsmith, a “cool dude” if ever there was one, and Gregory Jackson is deadpan funny playing the Second Merchant as a cross between a refugee from “Get Smart” and Inspector Clouseau.