MANY scholars believe that The Comedy of Errors was Shakespeare's first play, and there is indeed the simplicity of the gifted tyro about it. The plot is set by the obvious device of having the back ground information out lined in along speech by Aegeon, a Syracusan under sentence of death for trespassing into Ephesus. After this, we know roughly what to expect.

When it comes, it does not so much defy credulity as ignore it. Two sets of male twins, destined to be masters and servants and parted as babies, turn up as adults who have not only managed to acquire the same names, but even to dress in identical clothes. One pair are settled in Syracuse when the others duly arrive, the possibilities for confusion are endless, and fully exploited.

Since it cannot be taken seriously, that is the only way to play it, and the Royal Shakespeare Company do so with considerable brilliance. They have even managed to find two pairs of extraordinary look alikes for the twins clearly not essential, but a bonus nonetheless. One soon accepts unthinkingly the bona fides of the cat's cradle of situations, and begins to laugh at the ingenuity with which they are conceived and staged.

Tim Supple's direction gradually turns up the tempo, so that the second half reaches a level of high farce the actors always remain in character, but their responses to their multiple dilemmas are heightened to the point of hilarity. The entire cast give performances of great vocal and physical precision, led by Robert Bowman with Simon Coates as the master twins, and Dan Milne with Eric Mallett as the servant clowns. This is the Bard delivered with style.

This revival of a play that has been progenitor to innumerable comedies of stage, film and musical is a total pleasure to the eye and ear. The elegant set design by Robert Innes Hopkins, nestled within three sides of steeply raked seats in the comfortable DCU venue, and atmospheric music by three musicians complete the sense of a classic production.