THE 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth is being celebrated by an amateur theatre club with a production of one of his earliest plays, Love’s Labour’s Lost.

But the Bard’s comedy is being given a twist by the Didcot Phoenix Drama Group players as they have transported the action from its original Elizabethan setting to the 1970s, an era of funky music, loud shirts and flared trousers.

Love’s Labour’s Lost tells the story of four young noblemen, led by Prince Ferdinand, King of Navarre (Cain Rees), who vow to see no women while they study for three years. Moth, Mark Padbury (Dumaine), Laura King (The Princess), Mark Foy 

But their best intentions are well and truly undone by the arrival of the Princess of France (Laura King) and her ladies on a diplomatic mission, causing the men to fall in love and break their vows.

While the King and his companions — Berowne (Will Strike), Longueville (Mark Foy) and Dumaine (Mark Padbury) — attempt to woo the Princess and her attendants, Rosaline, Maria, Katherine and Boyet, played by Elizabeth Dobson, Katherine Miller, Karen Carey and Alison Driscoll, streetwise villager Costard (Greg Greetham) is vying with Spanish knight, Don Armado (Edmund Bennett), for the love of sexy dairymaid, Jaquenetta (Anna Berry).

Watching the scenario unfold are a pretentious village schoolteacher Holofernes (Jane Card), a shy deaconess Natalia (Liz Holliss) and a rather bewildered local constable Angela Dull (Gerry Rouse).

And, so, the scene is set for a tale of switched love letters, declarations of desire and disguises donned. The play is well known for its clever, quick-fire wordplay, originally designed to appeal to the courtly audience of the late 1500s/early 1600s.

For director Dan Shipman, the production marks a return to his university days when he trod the boards as an actor in Love’s Labour’s Lost, and the use of his chum’s Ian Halverson’s adaptation of the Bard’s work after Branagh, Brooks and Barton.

Dan told the Herald: “Having played Costard in a showing of Love’s Labour’s Lost whilst at university, it was only a matter of time before I commandeered my friend’s adaptation of the play.

“As this year is the 450th birthday of Mr William Shakespeare, it seemed the perfect opportunity.”

He said: “To give the play a different feel and cast it into a fantastic new era, I chose to set it in the glorious 1970s with flared trousers, fantastic music and lewd comedy just as outrageous.

“So prepare to be transported back to a world of flared trousers, loud shirts, long hair and sideburns, intertwined with a little musical memory of the 1970s and extraordinary dancing to accompany it.”

As well as assisting Dan with the directing, Bettina Hughes has been responsible for providing the cast with an authentic Seventies’ look along with Jane Card.

Love’s Labour’s Lost has three performances at Didcot Civic Hall at 8pm on Friday, July 25, and at 2.30pm and 8pm on Saturday, July 26. Tickets at £10 full price and £6 for concessions are available from the Civic Hall, online through the Phoenix group’s website at: www.didcotphoenixdrama.co.uk or by calling 07805 166292.