REVIEW: The Shoemaker’s Holiday – at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, until Saturday, March 7, 2015.

HOLIDAYS are meant to be enjoyable and this excursion into eccentricity is surely every bit as good as plonking a knotted handkerchief on your head and strutting your stuff along a Marbella beach without a care in the world.

Thomas Dekker’s 17th century comedy is full of such simple delights. It’s down to earth fun charting not just the rise to fame and fortune of a cobbler who becomes Lord Mayor of London, but the subtle twists of love embroiled both in war and peace, although it doesn’t take that long.

The ‘holiday’ refers to a pancake feast thrown for the apprentices of London on Shrove Tuesday in 1446 by the real-life Lord Mayor and Dekker, taking a little liberty here and there, has drawn on this real-life character and others.

There was a Simon Eyre, a draper, who rose to high office in the mid-1400s but here he is a larger-than-life character. This mayor-to-be is the boss of a back-street shoemaker shop ebulliently played by David Troughton, who is delightfully matched by his dotty wife Margery by way of a witty and hilariously wicked performance from the excellent Vivian Parry.

Troughton has Eyre all brilliant bullish bluster and big-bellied, yet skilfully manipulative as he climbs the social ladder, while the garrulous Margery’s comic observations take her off on tangents she can surely not recover from.

There were special moments between this admirable pairing, reminiscent of the innkeeper and his wife in Les Mis but here the bizarrely delivered curses are more good natured than spiteful.

There’s plenty of gibberish too elsewhere – or rather ‘Double-Dutch’ - as our romantic lead deserts the war against France, dons clogs and claims to be Hans from Holland to add mystery and intrigue among the shoemakers and the aristocracy.

Thomasin Rand and Josh O’Connor are both splendid as the lovers Rose and Rowland, initially separated by disapproving family. Having impressed recently in the RSC’s Oppenheimer, Rand is surely destined to fly high and her Rose is delightfully demure with a touch of sophistication.

Daniel Boyd impresses too as the tortured soul Ralph, who returns home from the war badly injured only to find his wife – believing him dead – intends to plight her troth elsewhere. Another ‘battle’ ensues.

Fine performances too from the accomplished William Gaminara as Rose’s father Sir Roger Oatley, and Sandy Foster’s bright-eyed and bubbly Sybil, Rose’s maid. And you can throw into this excellent mix further fine comic portrayals in the back-street business from Joe MacCormack as Firk and Michael Hodgson as Hodge.

While director Philip Breen may have stinted in the scenery stakes he does provide the treat of a cast superbly attired in the costumes of the time. And the extra space ensures he not only has this production moving along at a fair rate of knots, he also gets a professional and hard-working performance from all.

Together it all adds up to a joyful evening. Fairly short at 2hrs 20mins and definitely sweet.