Rainbow Shakespeare’s second summer offering moved from the last week's battles and passion of Troilus And Cressida to the love battles and comedy of Much Ado About Nothing.

Worthing’s beautiful Highdown Gardens offered a perfect setting to Shakespeare’s play that revolved around people mistakenly overhearing things that they then misinterpret - hence the pun in the play’s title: "noting/nothing".

Martin Harris’s simple, yet clever set merged with the gardens' lush greenness, thereby allowing plenty of wonderful comic business.

Ross Muir and Susanna Gordon excelled as the warring lovers, extracting every bit of laughter and passion out of the bard’s sparkling lines. Their verbal jousting was sheer delight.

Peter Goode, once again provided great comedy as the wonderfully pompous constable Dogberry, leading a group of simple watchmen who uncovered the dastardly plans of Don John, evilly played by David Gerits.

There was a spirited performance from Abigail Watton as the wronged Hero. However it was the ensemble playing that was this company’s greatest strength.

Rainbow Shakespeare as ever made Shakespeare seem effortlessly understandable and enjoyable. A five-year-old sat entranced by his first Shakespeare experience, while the large audience of all ages seemed spell-bound by this production in its Arcadian setting.

Four stars