David Tennant played the role of Antipholus of Syracuse in RSC's 2000 producion of The Comedy
Of Errors in Stratford Upon Avon.
Ephesus and Syracuse are at odds. Any Syracusan found in Ephesus will be executed unless he can pay a ransom
of a thousand marks. Egeon, an old Syracusan merchant, has been arrested. He explains how he has come to Ephesus: he and his
wife Emilia had identical twin sons and identical twin slaves, purchased for the purpose of serving the sons. In a shipwreck
many years ago, he was separated from his wife, one son and one slave. The survivors are renamed in memory of the lost ones:
Antipholus for the son and Dromio for the slave. Once grown to manhood, Antipholus of Syracuse, with his Dromio, had set off
in search of his brother and mother. Egeon is now in search of them. The Duke gives him until evening to find the ransom money.
By chance Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse have also just arrived in Ephesus. The other Antipholus and Dromio have been living
there since the wreck. And so the comedy of errors ensues. The locals constantly mistake the visiting twins for the natives
– even Antipholus of Ephesus' wife Adriana and her sister Luciana are fooled. The confusions result in Antipholus of
Ephesus being arrested for debt and declared mad, while Antipholus of Syracuse take refuge from his brother's angry wife in
a Priory – where the abbess turns out to be Egeon's long-lost wife. All is resolved and Egeon is freed.
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