Bored of the same old popular comedies and fairy-stuffed extravaganzas? This summer the beautiful Wadham College gardens are host to the Oxford Shakespeare Company's Two Gentlemen of Verona, a rarely-performed comedy from early in Shakespeare's career. Two friends journey to Milan, Valentine with great enthusiasm (doubled when he meets, and falls in love with, famed beauty Sylvia), and Proteus unwillingly, as it will separate him from his love, Julia. But when Proteus meets the captivating Sylvia, and falls hard for her, he sets off a chaos of incidents; contests of wit, disguised lovers, tragic betrayals, dangerous outlaws, implausible forgivings - and a funny bit with a dog! The plot is all over the place, the language a minefield of unfamilar words and some scenes get very nasty. But the sharp, perceptive performances and undisputed quality of the actors comfortably unknots the tangle of plots and poetry, and sketches on the twilight garden a dark and dangerous world of mobsters, masks and martinis, where frantic
love affairs are played out of clouds of gloom and cigarette smoke, while the intermittent brilliance of the writing gives every actor their chance to shine. Kirsty Yates and David Chittenden (with his pretty little dog!) camp and clomp as the two servants, a perfect pair of sharp and dull wits; against the sharp suits and evil schemings of sinister Jonathon Coote and sly, sleek Daffydd Gwyn Howells, Hannah Mercer's dapper, desolate Julia (ably assisted by a riotous Deborah Mason) shines even more fair and virtuous; and Charlotte Windmill is instantly credible as Sylvia, the mysterious beauty everyone falls for. The very heart of the show, though,
is George May (Valentine), touching and hilarious as gallant friend, moony lover, and dandy highwayman, and his shadow, Proteus (Philip Buck), duplicitous, cruel, still charming.

Jeremy Dennis, 28.07.03