The venue, as it happens, could hardly be bettered. The enclosed courtyard which lies at the heart of the vast Victorian statement building, is acoustically friendly. And the big leafy plane tree in the centre is atmospherically suggestive of the Forest of Arden although there is a great deal of rather tiresome walking round and round the tree in an effort to include audience on most of four sides which doesn’t always come off.

The play – popular as it is – comes with problems. It’s very episodic and has an enormous cast of characters including more women than most Shakespeare plays. It also has more sub plots than an 800-page Victorian novel. These are the very factors which make it a good choice for a drama school with lots of actors to cast. Bit it is also exactly what makes it a challenge to keep the storytelling clear and focused. In this production, sadly, I suspect anyone new to the play would often have struggled to work out who was who and what was going on.

Although everyone is working very hard (too hard in some cases) this show belongs to Rosie Malone who is outstanding as Rosalind. Her low slung voice projects well and she brings a wide range of moods to her complex character, by turns feisty, fun-loving, flirtatious and passionate. She has that rare quality of lighting up the playing space every time she appears so that you immediately sit up and listen. Malone is also a good actor-muso who plays some engaging little conversational pieces on clarinet with Louise Conway (a pleasingly slutty Audrey) on flute. There are more songs in As You Like It than in most Shakespeare plays and they are all given tuneful, engaging treatment here with Conway as Musical Director.

I liked Miles Griffin’s take on Jacques – camp but understated, melancholy but irrasicible. And Craig King enjoys himself as the clown, Touchstone who does, unlike, most Shakespeare clowns, eventually get the girl and a happy ending.

This show is a very valiant effort and it’s wonderful to see a full length live show (with interval!) again but it tends, in places, to be slow moving so perhaps it could have done with a few more cuts.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

One of the actors messaged me after this show to say how much he’d liked seeing my smiling face in the audience for this show. Well, yes. I was utterly entranced for the entire ninety minutes. This is a play which I used to teach to A level students. I’ve seen it dozens of times and probably know it nearly as well as the cast do. This imaginative Covid-friendly interpretation, is as clever as it is witty and as moving as it is original.

Think of a plausible reason why you might stage Henry V in a socially distanced environment and build it into your production …

So: We’re in a school on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of the holidays, the coronavirus, notwithstanding. The group – two teachers and eight students – has come to the Roman Theatre to rehearse their play with social distancing and carefully labelled props. Much teenage joshing and then suddenly we’re off with Cassandra Hodges as authoritative Miss Nightingale, deliberately hamming up the opening Chorus to the ribald amusement of her students. What follows is a very sensitive, moving production whose text (skilfully abridged by Director Matthew Parker) omits very little. We even get the contentious killing of the French prisoners, the decision to execute Bardolph, the tension between Fluellen and Pistol and the deflating epilogue.

The cast is impressively strong and so adept at such slick doubling that you almost don’t notice who is playing what. Luke Adamson, for example, gives us a revoltingly effete, self-satisfied Dauphin, a suitably righteous Fluellen and a laughably scheming Ely. Rachel Fenwick is delightful as the put-upon, troubled Boy and she finds a charming combination of mischief, coyness and wisdom in Princess Katherine. There is much scrambling in and out of hats and jackets at the side of the stage – all worn over school uniform.

Mara Allen delights as Henry. She brings the right blend of imperiousness, self-doubt and bluster and really develops the character as the play moves forward. Her St Crispin speech moved me to tears, partly because it was poignantly understated. And she handles that tricky proposal scene – making the best of a marriage of convenience for both characters – adeptly. These students are reminded several times by their ‘teachers’ to distance and the kissing solution is fun.

There’s mood music too. Holst’s Jupiter and various numbers chosen by the students links scenes and gives them an opportunity to dance. Parker’s choreography is very compelling especially in the battle scene – with cricket bats and tennis rackets because teacher Mr Spencer (Edward Elgood) has been unable to get access to the weapons cupboard.

Warmest congratulations to everyone involved with this Henry V. It’s a tour de force.

Photo: @lhphotoshots

⭐⭐⭐

This is a show – about two, real life, Nineteenth Century gay cross-dressers – which resonates. They have been acquitted of indecency offences and now, as actors, take their show on the road to tell their story. Cue for some nifty and versatile role playing among the accomplished cast of six. Even today many people will recognise and identify with some of the serious issues it lightheartedly raises.

And the press night I went to was a pretty special occasion because for most of the threatre-starved critics in attendance this was the first live show they’d seen for five months. There was a great sense of joy in the atmosphere even before we were ‘safely’ escorted out to the Eagle’s newly reburbished garden. I for one, was thrilled and charmed, even to be in the same space as performance after such a long deprivation.

Jed Berry as Stella and Kane Verrall as Fanny spark well off each other – each character sometimes troubled but also being shamelessly outrageous. Mark Pearce is good value as Mr Grimes (a role he is reprising from a previous production) gamely becoming whatever character he’s required to. Glenn Chandler’s book and lyrics are spiky fun with lots of double entendres.

Charles Miller’s music is spot on for the 1870s with echoes of Arthur Sullivan and music hall. And it sets off the words which are sung with impeccable clarity by this well directed (Steven Dexter) cast. ‘Sodomy on the Strand’ is a fine, catchy song but maybe not one you’d want your child to pick up and sing at school. This is definitely an adult show. All the musical accompaniment is provided by Aaron Clingham, playing keys in a face mask at the back of the playing area. And Nick Winston’s musical staging provides some compelling dance routines complete with smouldering looks and sexy shivers.

Saucy and ribald as it often is, this production of Fanny and Stella also has a quality of innocence about it and the end with its line about surely not having to wait another hundred years for tolerance and acceptance is ruefully moving. Generally though, The campness is delicious and by golly, it was good to be back in a theatre space.

Fanny and Stella (Kane Verrall as Frederick William Park aka Fanny) and Jed Berry (Ernest Boulton aka Stella). Photo: Joseph Thomas