The Great Barn is looking better than ever this year, the nearest performance space this region has to an Elizabethan theatre, and TFT’s opening show of their annual Shakespeare Festival was a good-looking affair , though more Jacobean in period. However, popular as this rom-com is, directors must have the courage to prune it fiercely in order to maintain the audience’s attention, and herein lay the main problem with Kevin Fraser’s overlong and at times unnecessarily wordy production.

At the centre of the action, Patrick Pringle was an excellent Orlando, clearly-spoken and personable, well-matched by Antonia Brown’s forthright Rosalind, the object of his affection. Lou Mannell, as her lifelong friend Celia, was a delight to watch and has the stamp of a first-class character actress. In his first Shakespearean role, Rob Smyth took the part of the melancholy Jacques in his stride, and Amy Bever’s disdainful shepherdess Phebe was appropriately feisty.