First, let it be said that on the evening this critic attended the Vineyard Playhouse’s outdoor performance of The Comedy of Errors, Friday, July 22, when the weather was so warm it felt as if the entire Island was holding a Bikrum hot yoga class (for those unfamiliar with the workout, the purpose is to reproduce a boiling afternoon in Calcutta), the heat itself became a starring character. Those in the audience intrepid enough to show up — and it was a goodly number considering the discomfort — couldn’t help wondering how the players themselves would hold up, and should we offer them the opportunity to sit upon the ground and recite their lines, and as Shakespeare wrote in another play “tell sad tales of the death of kings?”

But they were young and talented and inspired by the sheer farcical fun of the play and the brilliant direction of Chelsea McCarthy. All that running up this hill and down that dale — part of the Tisbury Amphitheatre’s contribution to Shakespeare’s madcap comedies wherein characters enter and exit with astonishing élan — was accomplished with such energy, one could only conclude that a massive but invisible air conditioner had been installed behind the massive but invisible proscenium arch that separates audience from players.

The Comedy of Errors is what they call in show biz a one-joke play. It was one of Shakespeare’s first, written in 1594, and published in the First Folio in 1623. A decision was made in this production to clothe the ensemble in early 1960s garb, but in our minds we’re back in the 16th century when those wild and whacky Elizabethans could swallow the customs of the age: The Duke of Ephesus (Ezra Lowrey) enters with a handcuffed merchant from Syracuse. There’s some bad blood with the Syracusans (maybe one per cent of their citizenry held 40 to 50 per cent of the city-state’s wealth) and this poor fellow, Egeon (Bill Cookson) would be executed unless he chanced upon 1,000 marks by the end of the day.

Egeon then delivers one of the longest expository speeches in Shakepeare’s canon, but it explains all the details of the coming hilarious farce, so it’s worth hearing all 420 words of it. A long, long time ago his wife had just given birth to twin boys. A poor woman had also delivered herself of twin boys, and Egeon bought them as slaves for his sons. (You see what I mean about ancient customs.)

The family of four, plus two baby slaves, was shipboard when a storm hit and the vessel was wrenched apart. Egeon and one baby son plus one baby slave were swept along one way; wife Aemilia and one baby son plus one baby slave sluiced off helplessly in another direction.

Both lost rich boys somehow ended up each being named Antipholus (Adam Petkus and Ben Marnkoff) and, yep, you got it, both slaves were named Dromio (Dylan Schwartz-Wallach and Jacob Tischler). Perhaps the parents had been squabbling over names before the boat broke apart, and each carried away the only two names agreed upon, thinking the others had likely drowned.

Now not only has Egeon landed in Ephesus, but the Syracuse Antipholus and Dromio also have taken separate passage in a long pursuit of finding their lost brothers.

This is when the farce hits the fan. Of course the actors are hardly twins, but Ms. McCarthy has dressed them in the same blue shirts and straw hats for the rich boys, and black and white Venetian gondola shirts for the servants. The awesome audience suspension of disbelief kicks in without a moment’s hesitation: These are two sets of identical twins and they’re about to get into a great deal of trouble.

Antipholus of Syracuse collides with Adrianna (Liz Michael Hartford), Antipholus of Euphesus’s wife. She wraps herself around him like Island bittersweet around oak trees while he’s unable, utterly incapacitated from returning this strange woman’s affection. He does agree to follow her home to dinner where he falls in love with her sister, Luciana (Kathryn David). The actual man of the house finds entry barred to him.

Meanwhile both Antipholuses (Antipholi?) are continually running into the wrong slave and finding he knows nothing about whatever crucial errand he was sent out to accomplish, which invites a beating.

A note about comic beatings: They’re staged in a way that’s pure slapstick, but I’m wondering if British audiences have a larger appetite for this sort of “fun” malice. Even as recently as the 1970s when Fawlty Towers was filmed, John Cleese used to pound his poor Barcelonian porter, Manuel (Andrew Sachs), as if in real life he wouldn’t be hauled off to jail for this. Oh well. Maybe it’s a good thing we waged our 1776 Revolution after all.

So all of this mistaken identity leads to more arrests, madness, theft, and charges of demonic possession (another behavioral modality we don’t hear much about these days).

You have never in the theatre experienced a relief so strong as when the Ephesus twins stand on stage and the Abbess (Amy Elizabeth Sabin), who ends up being Egeon’s long-lost wife, Aemelia, escorts the Syracuse twins to meet, not only their brothers, but the citizens they’ve enraged.

Mr. Schwatz-Wallach and Mr. Tischler as the Dromios carry the play with their antic gestures, gymnastic pratfalls, and their comically-timed inappropriate hugs. This is Ms. McCarthy’s directorial debut and, as an old (though still young) Shakespeare hand, she worked assiduously with the actors to make sure they understood every word uttered. Shakespeare’s language can be confounding, but when the actor knows whereof he speaks, the audience comprehends, even if it’s only subliminally.

Comedy of Errors at the amphitheatre is as easy to love and laugh at as Barefoot in the Park. Speaking of which, on the dog days that ensued over the past weekend, it was a gift from on high that the actors weren’t garbed in Elizabethan brocades.

Supporting roles were ably and spiritedly acted by Katharine Pilcher, Laurel Johnson, Anna Yukevich, Xavier Powers, Ian Malone, Ian Geers and Rhianna Schahn. May V. Oskan delivers a star turn as a fearless and bawdy courtesan from whom a ring and a gold chain have been mistakenly put into the care of the wrong Antipholus. It’s fun to watch but exhausting to write about!

The fight choreography was staged by John Robichau, scenic painting by Mac Young, costumes by Chelsea McCarthy and Paige McCarthy, and stage management by Ellen Dempsy. M.J. Bruder Munafo, as producer and artistic director, makes it all happen and for that we are truly grateful.

Heck, I even loved Rosemary Hagazian’s ticket-selling at the top of the path!

But who’s responsible for air conditioning the actors? Are there slaves who fan them when they come running back into the woods?

Comedy of Errors will run through August 14, Wednesday through Saturday at 5 p.m. and Sunday, August 14, also at 5 p.m., at the Tisbury Amphitheatre, off State Road near the Tashmoo Overlook. Tickets are $15 for adults, or $10 for those 18 and younger, available directly from Rosemary, cash only, at the amphitheatre, on the afternoon of the show.