It would be a tragic mistake to miss “The Comedy of Errors,” now running at Boston University’s Huntington Theatre through June 19.

Propeller, Britain’s high-energy, all-male Shakespeare company, is currently visiting Boston for the first time, presenting this faux ancient Greek romp in repertory with another early work, “Richard III.”

Shakespeare’s King’s Men like all troupes of his time had only male actors. Though the very contemporary and aptly named Propeller is neither attempting a historical recreation with doublets and hose nor making the least effort at female impersonation, its use of very obviously male actors to play female characters offers a rare insight into the levels of irony Elizabethans enjoyed when viewing the antics in this, what is often dismissed as one of the Bard’s simplest works.

Take, for example, the scene where the unmarried Luciana (David Newman) advises her married sister Adriana (Robert Hands) to placate her husband at any cost, prompting Adriana to laughingly observe, “This servitude makes you to keep unwed!”

Propeller artistic director Edward Hall has imagined this farce as unfolding “ in a sort of wild 1980s package holiday island, Costa del Ephesus if you like.” All the tacky sombreros, strings of colored lights and mountains of gag props besides establishing a casual, festive atmosphere serve a semi-serious purpose. He notes, “There’s a lot of live music, we’re very physical, we like to be very visual, but all in the name of clarifying what’s going on on stage.”

Hall and Propeller specialize in entertaining audiences that include many with little or no experience seeing a Shakespearean play. Without compromising the verse or dumbing things down, the company incorporates familiar physical comedy that audiences automatically relate to like Keystone Kop chases and Three Stooges’ horseplay.

Shakespeare wrote for all levels of his public, as varied in their expectations as modern audiences are. The educated then and now would recognize that this play (about the mix ups that ensue when two pairs of long separated twin brothers accidentally end up in the same city) was based on Roman comedies by Plautus. Most Propeller cast members studied at the finest UK drama schools and can imitate the speech of all societal levels, thus allusively satirizing current British culture wars.

Playgoers of any era who are not tuned in to all that can still appreciate the outrageous mugging, timeless comic shticks and gross-out humor. Even Shakespeare newbies can relate an Antipholus who looks like Matthew Perry and a police officer who resembles Monty Python’s John Cleese.

Though Propeller is not afraid to leave some long serious speeches uncut, the troupe does tweak the scenes with the exorcist Dr. Pinch, turning him into an American televangelist, and incorporating Boston references. But then again the King’s Men doubtless tailored Shakespeare’s lines to specific audiences as well.

Send ideas to Chris Harding at newseditor@dotnews.com