Lovers and fighters convene at an opulent Sicilian hotel, though the battle won at the start of Shakespeare’s comedy seems rather vague here: there is an air of celebration and some military uniforms but no fascist iconography or any giveaway clue. Is Mussolini’s reign the backdrop to the fun and revelry upfront? It could be the jazz age or equally a corner of the 1930s untouched by war.
But never mind the detail because Simon Godwin’s production does not seek to commit itself to anything as prosaic as reality. This Sicily is situated in an indistinct “imagined past” which looks like a decadent 20th-century fantasyland.
