A TIMELESS Shakespearian comedy is set for a twist as a Romsey amateur group gears up for its latest offering.

Set at the end of World War Two and featuring women playing male roles, Romsey Amateur Dramatic & Operatic Society is providing a different take on Much Ado About Nothing.

The modern comedy revolves around two intertwined love stories – one caustically funny, between Beatrice and Benedick, and the other, between Claudio and Hero, poignantly sweet.

These loves play out with an explosion of witty banter as victorious soldiers returning from war set their sights on the peacetime pleasures of merrymaking and romance in a jaunty world of aristocratic artifice.

However, when false information leads one proud nobleman to cruelly denounce his beloved on their wedding day, the verbal sparring sours into private warfare.

The powerful comedy is set to induce laughter but also break hearts – and then magically put it back together again as if it were all ‘much ado about nothing’.

Director Steve Cosier explained why the group chose to give the play a shake-up. He said: “Shakespeare is often perceived as difficult for the uninitiated to understand.

“The 1940s setting will be more familiar for audiences and the idea of military men coming back from war to confront women changed by their experiences in the workplace matches well with the same Shakespearean theme of Much Ado About Nothing.

“I was also keen to mix up the genders. Women playing male roles in Shakespeare is nothing new – Sarah Bernhardt played Hamlet in Paris in the late 1890s – and it can be deeply revealing. A woman interpreting a male character can draw attention to those characteristics we associate with male behaviour.”

Much Ado About Nothing runs at the Plaza Theatre in Romsey from June 16-20 - all performances at 7.30pm.

Tickets cost £12, or £10 for the Tuesday show. To book visit plaza theatre.com or call 01794 512987.