At the filming of the grandest production of Antony and Cleopatra the world has ever seen, the two lead actors find themselves embroiled in a tempestuous love affair of their own.

And as their passion provokes their personal lives to fall apart around them, they soon find that life is imitating art in more ways than one.

Using a sparse, intimate set and aerial circus skills, this is an unusual and compelling production.

But where the acrobatics are faultless, the script here and there is overworked or too predictable to keep the audience fully engaged (“You are the greatest actress in the world,” he says. “What could you possibly crave?”

“Anonymity!” she flourishes. Yuck.) As Antony, Matt Costain also teeters on the smug rather than dashing lover we’d all like him to be.

But for those minor flaws – which for the play’s second-ever showing cannot really be poked at too harshly – it is a touching and beautiful love story, drenched with a joy of performing and storytelling, which adds a cheeky hint of modernity to an ancient and enduring tale.