Twins, a Subject of Plays             since the Begining of Time Twins have been a very common subject in plays from Plautus to our times, perhaps the oldest story of confusing identical twins is still charming! One of the first writers in history of theater plays, Plautus, taking from a previous greek version by Menandrus, wrote "the two Menaechmuses" meaning "twins".  In this play a pair of twins separated at birth by coincidence end up in the same town where they get confused by the people as no one knows there are two twins. In the end the twins meet and finally get to know each other. Terence, another roman playwrighter, wrote "the Adelphoe" in which two brothers have been brought up by different fathers and help each other since the real father of both of them is very strict. The most famous play about twins is of course "The Comedy of Errors" by Shakespeare.  In this commedy there are two pairs of twins as the servants of the twins are themselves twins. The two pairs of twins, born in Syracuse, were separated during a storm on a ship when they were children.  They end up many years later in the same town, Ephesus.  Here the identical twins find themselves in a chaotic situation as none of the servants can tell them apart. They are constantly taken for the wrong twin until they finally end up in the same place at the same time and realize the comical situation they had both been through.

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