Pirates of the Caribbean doesn't have the market cornered on strange creatures. In Junior Players' spirited production of The Comedy of Errors, which opened Tuesday, Antipholus of Syracuse meets a pretty strange crowd, from a six-legged green merchant (manipulated by four actors) to the Duke of Ephesus, whose mouth is the trap door of the stage with eyes suggested by the faces of two actors on either side of the door peering out as the pupils in two enormous cut-out irises.

MEI-CHUN JAU/DMN

Courtesan - a puppet played by (from left) Emily Anderson, Olivia Trevino and Veronica Vera - is one of the many fascinating inhabitants in The Comedy of Errors.

The effect is fresh and fun – and just the kind of surprise one has come to expect from a company that has been encouraging teens to make Shakespeare their own for the last 16 years.

Presented in collaboration with Shakespeare Dallas, the Junior Players show has become an annual must-see production for those who admire the company's commitment to bringing the arts to thousands of kids free of charge. And it has also, over the years, become a pleasure on its own. The bucolic outdoor setting, which lends itself to blankets and picnic baskets, is lovely. The inventiveness and the rawness of the young talent invigorate and inspire.

Under the direction of Matt Tomlanovich and Valerie Hauss-Smith, the cast of 27 teens from 13 area high schools rips through the farcical plot looking for laughs. And they find plenty. The story centers on twin brothers Antipholus of Ephesus and Antipholus of Syracuse, who were separated in an accident at sea along with their twin servants, Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse.

When Antipholus of Syracuse is grown, he and his servant, Dromio, go looking for their brothers. When they reach Ephesus, Antipholus of Syracuse can't understand why a strange woman is claiming him as her husband and a merchant insists on giving him a gold chain. Meanwhile, Antipholus of Ephesus can't figure out why a merchant demands payment for a chain he has never seen.

Katheryn Grace Smaczniak and Tatiana Hullender provide strong anchors as the outraged Antipholuses who are mistaken for each other in this ship of fools. But it's tall and lean Nick Saltarelli and Forrest McClain who get the biggest laughs as Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse – the poor, befuddled servants who are cracking jokes or screaming in confusion when their masters berate them, infuriated when one Dromio denies he was told what had actually been told to the other.

The idea behind David Goodwin's puppet designs is to suggest how bizarre Antipholus of Syracuse finds the people of Ephesus. The concept, which requires some of the actors to speak in unison, presents quite a hurdle for these young actors to jump.

But it sure is exhilarating to watch them pull it off.