Sharon Jennings has taken a minor character from one of Shakespeare’s plays and written a new one that runs concurrent with and echoes many of the scenes from the original.

In this case the character “Sweet Rosaline”, Romeo’s first love, does not appear in Romeo And Juliet but is only mentioned. Jennings’s imagination allows the audience to follow Shakespeare’s plot from Rosaline’s point of view.

Written in a quirky style, the play has its cast in modern dress and using today’s idioms interspersed with rhyming verse. The script is very witty and full of Shakespearean in-jokes and references. The humorous connections extend to the props scattered around – an asses’ head, a skull and a royal crown.

Alethea Steven plays well the 14-year-old Rosaline, naive when it comes to romance but seemingly advanced in carnal knowledge when it comes to saucy exchanges with her nurse, the excellent Rachel Voldman. There is a nicely observed performance from Lee White as Friar Lawrence.

The play is clever in its construction and is good fun, with the writing producing plenty of laughter. However the final scene is a tad verbose, tends to meander a bit and is in need of tightening up.