Just like one of the Bard’s great dramas, Shakespeare in Love is a romp of love, tragedy, mistaken identity, and bawdy humour with just enough historical fact to give it the semblance of authenticity.
From the play’s very title to its immediate machine gun assault on the audience with the rapid use of the f word, this is a production that is designed to shock.
With that hall-mark twinkle in his eye, Matt Lucas bounces on to the Chichester Festival Theatre stage in a starring musical role of which ill health nearly robbed him.
When the first person to appear on stage is director Daniel Evans with a microphone in hand and not a hint of a tap dance in his step, you know that there is trouble ahead.
If the 21st century has become dominated by the global tech giants, it’s easy to forget that 100 years ago it was the national newspaper barons that called all the shots.
The hallmarks of Restoration comedy are everything taken to excess - from the wit and licentiousness of the plots to the gloriously resplendent costumes and the powder puff wigs.
When The Chalk Garden premiered on Broadway in 1955, the Sussex soil that gave title to Bagnold’s vignette of rural life was as unyielding as it was barren.
