As You Like It by the Priory Players, Upper Bowling Green, Castle Park, Colchester. Until Tomorrow, August 6, at 7.30pm.

SOMETIMES you can quite forget what theatrical gems we have in this town.

And what a jewel we have in the Priory Players, especially as they now have a new spiritual home in the gorgeous setting of the Upper Bowling Green.

Surrounded by magnificent trees, it's only the distant shouts, bangs and chimes of the nearby bustling town that persuades us otherwise we are not truly cut off from the world outside.

Even the walk home, along the dimly lit path between the two parks, adds to the dramatic atmosphere.

So what a shame it was that the 'Green' wasn't jam packed with punters on the night I went.

The great British weather held out, the greenery was on its finest show, and topping it all off was one of Shakespeare's most utterly ridiculous plays.

As You Like It is pretty much a meandering muse on love, and if you don't get too caught up in following the plot, which director Tony Winn in the programme aptly describes as absurd, then much fun is to be had.

Little touches like Orlando placing post-it notes for his love poems, Touchstone coming into the audience to pick at a picnic or two, and of course the addition of a few musical interludes.

For the purists there's plenty to marvel at too as the cast delivers some of the Bard's most famous lines with aplomb.

New names to watch out for include Matthew Hankin, who was excellent as Orlando, as well as Elizabeth Pickering Hopland as Rosalind and Rebecca Ashforth as Celia, who were a great comedy duo.

And then there's the more familiar faces such as Kevin Topple, who positively revelled in playing the Fool, Touchstone, and David Elliot's assured Jaques, who eased into the play's most famous speech, and got a little round of applause for his efforts.

A resounding Summer treat.

NEIL D'ARCY-JONES