“You would never think this play was written 400 years ago. Some audiences have come away saying ‘Why have you changed all the words?’ but we haven’t changed a single one! It’s because the world of it is so vivid and so recognisable, it feels like you’re watching a new play.“

This could well be the reason why director Jonathan Munby has been getting five-star reviews for his production of Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night, which comes to Watford as part of its UK tour next week.

Jonathan has set the play – about twins who are separated in a shipwreck and unknowingly begin new lives in the same land – in the period between the First and Second World Wars.

“It seemed to me like the perfect historical context for the play,“ says Jonathan, the award-winning creative associate of English Touring Theatre (ETT), the company behind the production, “because it mirrors the dramatic structure of the play perfectly.

“Firstly, the play starts with a sense of mourning – the character Olivia loses her father and brother – and her maid mentions war, so there’s a dark cloud that hangs over the beginning of the play.

“With the centenary of the First World War being this year, I thought it would be interesting if the play emerged out of that. I thought audiences would be able to connect with that on a very real and immediate level.“ Jonathan also realised that the end of Twelfth Night had its own sense of impending disaster, as well.

“The end of the play is bittersweet,“ he says, “there’s a sense of foreboding, of looking forward to perhaps another catastrophic event in the future.

“I was very excited when I realised how perfectly it worked. I was reading the play and thinking ‘This is exactly what Shakespeare had in mind!’“

Between the two world wars, of course, came the hedonistic days of the 1920s, an era which the play also captures.

“There was a peak of experimentation, of partying, excitement, joy, and that’s also in the play,“ explains Jonathan, 38, who has loved Shakespeare since he was a student. “When people start to fall in love, there’s this heady feeling of abandonment and joy, the giddy-paced 20s.“

What is it about Twelfth Night, which was recently voted one of the nation’s top ten plays of all time in a poll by ETT, that has audiences rolling with laughter and coming back for more centuries later?

“I think the themes are universal – unrequited love, sexuality being fluid, mourning grief,“ says Jonathan. “But it’s also great fun as well as being moving. A play that is both things is, I think, a perfect play. I actually think it’s one of the greatest plays ever written. I don’t know what I’m going to do now, after this one!“

  • Twelfth Night is at Watford Palace Theatre, Clarendon Road, Watford, from Tuesday, October 28 to Saturday, November 1, at 7.30pm, and at 2.30pm on Thursday, October 30 and Saturday, November 1. Details: 01923 225671, watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk