A play about the heart that is almost entirely played out trippingly on the tongue, Shakespeare's comedy is one of the few plays for which he came up with the plot himself, rather than drawing on established sources. From this, we might infer that plot was not one of Shakespeare's strongest points, for little actually happens in this tale of the King of Navarre and his courtiers, four serious-minded young men who decide to withdraw from the world, choosing scholarship over sex for three long years. But no sooner have they decamped to the forest than along comes the Princess of France and her ladies.
This is a young man's play in every way; a glorious mixture of studied teenage affectation and puppyish romp. It is very silly, but all the pleasure in Love's Labour's Lost is in the backchat, particularly in the wooing between Berowne (Matthew Thomas) - the most intelligent and sceptical of the King's followers - and the quick-witted Rosaline (Lucy Black), one of the princess's ladies. Rosaline, the "whitely wanton with a velvet brow", has her descendent in a later Shakespearian heroine, Rosalind, who also finds her way into the forest. But the high-flown fancy and verbal gymnastics can come at a dramatic price, as it does so often in As You Like It too.
I have to confess that I've never seen a production of Love' s Labour's Lost that I've wholly enjoyed. Until now. One of director Andrew Hilton's strengths has always been his meticulous attention to language, and it pays dividends here in a production that has all the formality of an old-fashioned dance and all the soppy playfulness of first love. Lines that fell to the ground with a dull thud in other productions, here dance off the characters' tongues. So much so that when Berowne berates his fellow lords for their foolish lovesickness, the audience gives him a round of applause as if he was a skater who had just performed a particularly daring feat. The rest of the cast rise to the occasion too.
It is undoubtedly the case that this unsubsidised Bristol outfit offers the most consistent and enjoyable programme of Shakespeare in the country.
· Until April 29. Box office: 0117-902 0344.
