"If music be the food of love play on, give me excess of it..."

Theatre company The Lord Chamberlain's Men's attempt to fulfil Duke Orsino's opening words in Twelfth Night fell foul in a pre-performance musical number when a string on the fool's instrument snapped. But the faux pas was quickly rectified with a joke and on the show went.

The performance is nestled in a small, square garden of Bloomsburys' Charleston. On Tuesday the weather held out, even giving a fantastic display of colour as the night drew to a close, to create a quintessentially English evening, complete with picnics and popping corks from bottles of bubbly.

Seven well-voiced, talented and hilarious actors tell the tale of cross-dressing, tomfoolery and mistaken identity. And of course at the centre is the complicated love tryst which resembles a molecular structure.

Seven men playing the parts - including one playing Viola who is, in turn, pretending to be a man - only serve to improve the comedy and harp back to Shakespeare's vision when it was penned in the early 1600s.

A particular highlight is Malvolio's tireless leg work when he dons yellow, cross-gartered stockings.

But the entire performance is spot-on and has the giggling audience captivated from beginning to end. The perfect setting only works to emphasise the great play.

Four stars