The Wars of the Roses are back. Trade between Lancashire and Yorkshire comes at a punishing price. Regional loyalty is high. Make the wrong choice between an eccles cake and some parkin and you could meet a sorry end. For no compelling reason, it is also the 1980s, but best not to ask too many questions of this larky Shakespeare rewrite – it is hardly as if the playwright took his comedy too seriously.
Taking its cue from Isobel McArthur’s Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of), which gave an irreverent pop-culture spin to Jane Austen, this version of Shakespeare’s early comedy of confusion mixes in modern language and hit songs to play to the spirit if not to the letter of the original. As director Paul Robinson says in his programme note, “English is the only language that you can’t translate Shakespeare into,” which means it takes guts – or at least a degree of cheek – to set this 400-year-old play in the language of today.
