Occupying a curious theatrical hinterland somewhere between a Robert Bolt historical epic and a Peter Shaffer psychodrama, this play, set in the court of Elizabeth the night before the execution of her beloved Earl of Essex, is old-fashioned, middle-brow entertainment.

Its Canadian author, Timothy Findlay, weaves a fiction from the fact that on Shrove Tuesday 1601, the eve of Essex's execution, Elizabeth called Shakespeare and his actors to give a performance, presumably to distract her. He imagines the Queen joining the troupe after the performance, so setting up a confrontation between Elizabeth, the woman who has steeled herself to act like a man by condemning to death the man she loves, and Ned Lowenscroft, an actor dying of the pox, who has spent all his life playing women.

In the hands of a more skilled playwright this could be interesting stuff. Here, despite Jonathan Church's sparky production, Simon Higlett's design and some terrific performances, the whole thing is inert and plodding. It gives the impression of being meaty but is in fact insubstantial.

Findlay makes great play on the idea of acting as we see Elizabeth remove her wig and make-up and start to reveal her real self and Ned let drop the layers of rage and cynicism that he has used to protect himself from grief and fear. All the while Shakespeare sits happily in the corner penning Antony and Cleopatra, a play very much about putting on a performance. Antony and Cleopatra was never performed in the queen's lifetime and Findlay is not the first to suggest that was because Shakespeare used Elizabeth and Essex as his models for the lovers.

What the play does achieve is the creation of a complete world and a real sense of the exotic yet down-to-earth existence of the players, their camaraderie and loves and the easy sexual ambiguities of their relationships. James Dreyfus captures all the reckless bitterness of Ned, Stephanie Beacham is a commanding, teasing presence as the queen, and there is a host of strong supporting performances, with Aidan Meech particularly good as the watchful, lovelorn Harry. There is also a delightful bear (an actor convincingly dressed up) whose winsome cuddliness is appealing, but rather sums up everything that is wrong about the show.