The Royal Shakespeare Company  Chichester Festival Theatre production of Shakespeare’s tale of young romance, Love’s Labour’s Lost, transfers to the West End subsequent to an acclaimed 2014 run in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Playing at the Theatre Royal Haymarket for a limited season, Love’s Labour’s Lost is set in summer 1914. Pledging to dedicate themselves to a life of study, the King and his friends take an oath to avoid the company of women for three years – just before the unfortunately timed arrival of the Princess of France and her ladies-in-waiting.

Presented with a severe test of their high-minded resolve, the strength of their vows is the subject of Shakespeare’s glisteningly mischievous comedy, suggesting that the study of the opposite sex is in fact the highest of all academic endeavours. With an unexpected ending lying in store, the characters are blissfully unaware that the world around them is about to be transformed by war.

An evening of hilariously unrealistic promises, the comedy plays in rep with Much Ado About Nothing at the venue in a heart-warming double bill.