Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London
Chelsea Walker’s sleek production wavers between comic and dramatic as it charts a kind of love triangle

How does a modern-day production tie up the loose threads to Shakespeare’s problem play, with its low-born female lead who entraps a man of higher standing into marriage? Is she a proto-feminist, a social climber or a sexual coercer? And is this a comedy with funerals, or a tragedy with laughter?

The beauty of director Chelsea Walker’s production is that it exposes the clashing human desires in the drama rather than attempting to paste over them. Humour sits beside unease and crisscrossing romantic passions are laid bare.