SHAKESPEARE'S Globe on Tour is one of the highlights of Richmond’s Autumn season, with ticket sales to prove it.

Amid the bustle of being seated in the busy gallery, I fleetingly worried I’d arrived at the wrong performance at the sight of the "groovy" stage setting for a 1960s' band, complete with drum kit, retro microphones and electric guitars.

It quickly transpired that Director Nick Bagnall had reset the play in the swinging sixties and was using its multiple musical genres to illuminate the themes of The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

As the actors doubled as band members, music and costumes told the story of young people following their hearts and finding their place in the world.

Beige clothing and staid music set the backdrop for provincial Verona, from where young Valentine heads to fashionable Milan, characterised by trendy clothes and a lively pop scene. The homoerotic nuance within the relationship between the two gentlemen, Valentine and Proteus, was humorously alluded to in the stage action, until they both fall in love with the beautiful Sylvia.

More comedy came from Launch and his “dog” Crab, whose friendship fares better in Milan than that of the two gentlemen.

In a double betrayal of his childhood friend, and his childhood sweetheart Julia, Proteus pretends, for his own ends, to conspire with Sylvia’s father who wants her to marry Thurio. Amber James doubled as female servant Lucetta and made a surprisingly credible male as Thurio, particularly in her singing.

The scene in which Proteus attempts to rape the loyal Sylvia was powerfully choreographed, and the intensity throughout was enhanced by the music.

This stylized production was yet another excellent example of a creative interpretation of the Bard’s work, and the whistling and foot-stamping applause indicated resounding approval in Richmond.

Christina McIntyre