Unmistakable fun in outdoor ‘Errors’

Let’s play an association game. The subject is: Shakespeare. Quick, what comes to mind?

If the answers are tights, gobbledygook language and impenetrable plots, then perhaps a visit to Aquila Theatre Company’s staging of “The Comedy of Errors” is in order. There you’ll find Shakespeare’s tale of outrageous fortune and mistaken identity retold as a Middle Eastern fantasy of pith-helmeted, safari-outfitted adventurers; fez-topped, sunglasses-wearing locals; and enticing, navel-baring belly dancers.

The touring company, born in London but now based in New York, is being presented by Shakespeare Festival/LA through Sunday in the courtyard of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown L.A. and next week at South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes.

The presentation is as accessible as a Laurel and Hardy caper. Zipping along in a breezy two hours, the show -- seen indoors at La Jolla Playhouse in 2003 -- plays beautifully on a summer night outdoors. Knockabout comedy draws laughs, while hypnosis and tranquilizer darts lend mystery, all playfully conceived by Peter Meineck, Aquila’s artistic director, and Robert Richmond, its associate artistic director, and adapted and directed by Richmond.

Cleverly low-tech, the presentation invites the mind to play. When fanned wooden slats and a string of wicker flower baskets are hoisted on a rope, they become a palm tree. Flexible tubing draped with colorful tarp becomes a row of houses.

The plot involves two sets of twins, separated in infancy and about to be reunited in a port city where the locals keep confusing the wandering twins for the resident ones. The high-born twins, both named Antipholus, are played by Richard Willis, a Dudley Moore look-alike who switches roles through a change of accents, a minor costume adjustment and the addition or subtraction of chunky, black-framed glasses. The low-born twins, named Dromio and attached as servants to the Antipholuses, are portrayed by Louis Butelli, a skilled clown whose body goes all rubbery during the many moments of slapstick humor.

Willowy Lisa Carter plays Adriana, the wife of the local carouser of an Antipholus, as a proper society lady crossed with Audrey Meadows’ no-nonsense Alice Kramden. Lindsay Rae Taylor is sweet and unguarded as Adriana’s bookish sister.

Other roles are split up among Lincoln Hudson, Heather Murdock and Andrew Schwartz in a succession of humorous guises.

The ensuing confusion can be read as playful commentary about people’s dual natures -- or simply enjoyed for the lively entertainment that it is.

*

‘The Comedy of Errors’

Where: Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles

When: 9 tonight, 8 p.m. Sunday

Price: Free, but booked full

Running time: 2 hours

Also

Where: South Coast Botanic Garden, 26300 Crenshaw Blvd., Palos Verdes

When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays

Ends: Aug. 7

Price: $18

Info: (213) 975-9891 or www.shakespearefestivalla.org