As in “King Lear”, there are two brothers in dispute over inheritance.

There is another example of disguised identity where a woman is disguised as a man. There are fools and ambiguous figures who philosophise and comment on the meaning of life.

Peter Evans’ production seems to demand that the audience be aware of this and cuts the staging and settings to a core performance with little concern for establishing reasons for character appearances or backgrounds.

This is achieved with a set that, at first, appears like an old tent where a performance is to take place. Perhaps this was in deference to the original touring tents where Bell Shakespeare performed at the beginning of its existence.

The forest, where most of the action takes place, is achieved with brightly coloured hangings that represent a kind of confusion of the mind as much as any geographic location.

It provided for an aesthetically charged location for John Bell, as Jacques, to deliver a beautiful rendition of the “All the world’s a stage” speech. With its themes of life’s entrances and exits, it was very fitting for Bell in his last production with the company.

However, the setting became cloying and trapped the production into a second half that was static and becoming a tedious word-fest. While the actors worked hard, the production lost much of its tension with jokes laboured and the themes dissipated. The music was a redeeming feature and the very ending brought the play back to its foundation with the audience seeming to have enjoyed the evening.