After a self-imposed virtual drought during May, June's theatre visits kicked off in fine form with a bit of Shakespeare at the National Theatre accompanied by adam, who likes a bit of the Bard.
As a result it is quite a strange story but if you don't worry about that too much and view it more as a fairy tale then it's an entertaining romp with Shakespeare flexing his word play muscles.
The first half is the set up: girl falls for boy who's socially above her, she helps out the King who in return promises to let her marry whomever she chooses. Guess who she chooses? Boy, Bertram is his name, rejects her saying he'll only be her husband if she gets a ring on him he can't remove and has his baby.
He then buggers off to war in Italy. End of part one.
The second half is basically how she does the seemingly impossible. There is a Falstaff-type character thrown in for extra comedy value and hey presto there you have it.
And while the story didn't exactly float my boat, the production and acting more than made up for it. The set designers definitely went for fairy tale with castle turrets almost appearing like gnarly old trees and projections of spiders and bats on the back drop. Clever lighting picked out sparkles and sequins against quite a dark backdrop.
Notable performances came from the wonderful Oliver Ford Davies as the King (last seen doing a brilliantly comic Polonius in the RSC's Hamlet) and Conleth Hill as Parolles.
It's not going to be my favourite play of the year but it certainly dazzled and for £10 a ticket in the Travelex season you can't complain that it wasn't worth the money.
Here's what a few reviewers thought:
Independent
Time Out
Guardian