Menaechmi

Menaechmi is a play by Titus Maccius Plautus (254-184 B.C.). It belongs to the type of comedy called by the Romans "fabula palliata" because the characters in it wore Greek costume, rather than the distinctive Roman toga. This comedy is about the misadventures caused by the presence in one city of long-separated twins.

Translations and adaptations

Translations

Translated into English by Hansell Hewitt.

Adaptations

The play was the major source for William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, and to a lesser extent perhaps of Twelfth Night.

Adapted into Italian by Carlo Goldoni in 1747 as I Due Gemelli Veneziani ("The two Venetian twins", also formally translated and published as The Venetian Twins in English)

The Goldoni version was in turn adapted as a comic drama in three acts called I Tre Gemelli Veneziani ("The three Venetian twins") is by Antonio Collalto Mattiuzzi. Originally written in Italian when Mattiuzzi was at the Theatre Italien in Paris (1759-1778).

Performance history in South Africa

In April 1969 Hansell Hewitt directed a production at the Rhodes Theatre starring Noel Roos, Peter Terry, John Badenhorst, Chris Weare, Betty Asprey, Nan Grey, Colin Steyn, Marguerite Poland (as Erotium), Dugald Thomson and John Burch. Sailors and slaves: Anthony Akerman, Graham Pollock, Terry Owen and Christopher Williams. Music by Albert Honey. It was presented in a double bill with Mak, the Sheep-Stealer.

Sources

Wikipedia [1].

World Drama by Allardyce Nicoll. 120.

A programme, flyers and photographs held by NELM: [Collection: Rhodes University. Drama Department]: 2006. 6. 5. 2.

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