Review: The Shoemaker's Holiday Swan Theatre, Stratford

Dekker is bawdier than the bard, serving up an earthy assortment of characters including Cicely Bumtrinket who has a flatulence problem, and Firk whose name alone produces endless gags.

Throw in a gay King of England and you begin to wonder why Dekker wasn't sent straight to the Tower.

The story concerns two young men, one an aristocrat the other a shoemaker, sent off to the wars in France. Lacy, the noble, promptly deserts to see his girl and reappears in London disguised as a Dutch shoemaker, riotously played by Josh O'Connor who reminds us that the Tudors, like us, enjoyed nothing more than laughing at funny foreigners.

The real shoemaker Ralph (bags of pathos from Daniel Boyd) is reported killed and his wife is on the verge of remarrying as he limps home, maimed in battle.

These dramas unfold against the rise and rise of Simon Eyre, destined to become "Mad Simon," Lord Mayor of London and his ultra-ambitious wife, Margery.

That national treasure David Troughton is a wonderfully posturing and explosive Eyre. Vivien Parry as Margery is the best comic turn of the night, pitching her voice ever higher and more refined as hubbie gets promoted.

Phillip Breen's production is crisp and polished. There's some great singing and a couple of clever and effective freeze-frame moments. Best of all, and so rare these days, the play is performed in full Tudor costume, a riot of tights, breeches and farthingales. Pure joy.

The Shoemaker's Holiday is at Stratford until March 7.

by Peter Rhodes