Let it all hang out at Love’s Labour’s Lost 1990s reboot

Collaborators Nick Lane and Elizabeth Godber – the duo behind Comedy of Errors (more of less) – move the action from 16th century Navarre to 1990s Ibiza and swap princes and their servants and princesses and their handmaids for stags and hens.

They give us a pelvic-thrusting, hip-gyrating, lusty, sexy Love’s Labour Lost (more or less) smothered in innuendo and foaming at the mouth with lewd rhyming couplets.

The whole steamy lot is to 1990s chart-toppers from the Spice Girls, Britney Spears, Foreigner, Shania Twain, Cher and Take That.

The basic premise of Shakespeare’s original remains: a group of men sign a contract swearing them off women for a period of time – and then tested to the limit when they meet women they fancy.

In Lane and Godber’s version, Ferdinand and his mates head to Ibiza for his stag do. His father-in-law has set them up in a villa and made him promise that he and his friends will shun the opposite sex.

Meanwhile, the hens are meant to be miles away in Menorca but, at the last minute, are forced to change their plans and head to … Ibiza – where meeting the stags is inevitable.

Before you can say If You Wanna Be My Lover, Ferdy’s mates are making dates with the hens, the holiday rep is chatting up the fitness instructor and the bride and bridegroom-to-be have fallen out.

Throw in a mix-up with messages, dodgy drugs, an assassin and let the chaos commence.

To detail the plot any further or to reveal the set-ups and jokes would be like revealing whether Harry marries Sally.

Safe to say, if you love 1990s popular culture – then, from television to toys, you will recognise and revel in all the references.

The vibrant, joyful, feel-good production features Thomas Cotran, Alice Imelda, Linford Johnson, David Kirkbride, Annie Kirkman, Alyce Liburd, Timothy Adam Lucas and Jo Patmore. All play several roles.

Their characterisations – from a Spanish cop to a Scouse lover and a Texan rancher to a Territorial Army recruit – are spellbinding, clever and hilarious.

Each performer has a turn at the mike – in the tradition of karaoke, huge in the 1990s – and makes the most of the time in the spotlight as well as performing ensemble routines straight from a Spice Girls video.

A night at Love’s Labour Lost (more or less) is loud, lewd, chaotic, fast and furious – like being caught in the tail of a comet but you do not want to let go.

It is laugh-out-loud funny, clap-along, sing-along entertainment.

As with all great comedy, there are tears of a clown. Love’s Labours Lost (more or less) is not without its quiet, contemplative, tense and sad moments.

The mirth and merriment has heart. There are lessons to be learned about the nature of love, its expression and being true to oneself.

As Harry Nilsson sang I Can’t Live if Living is Without You.

That said – as Shania Twain sang: “I’m goi’' out tonight, I’m feelin’ all right. Gonna let it all hang out. Wanna make some noise, really raise my voice. Yeah, I wanna scream and shout.”

Do all of that at Love’s Labours Lost (more or less) at the Stephen Joseph Theatre until Saturday April 19.

Tickets: 01723 370541 and online at www.sjt.uk.com