BASED in Washington DC in the USA, the Shakespeare Theatre Company brings its production of Love's Labour Lost to the Swan Theatre, Stratford as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Complete Works Festival.

Set in an Indian Ashram in the 1960s, a boy band comes to study under a guru.

Transferring the scene to the swinging 60s when fashionable, successful young men, such as the Beatles, went in search of spiritual enlightenment in India, the production offers a contemporary parallel to Shakespeare's early comedy.

Directed by Shakespeare Theatre Company's founder and artistic director, Michael Kahn, there are other aspects of Shakespeare's play that also resonate with that particular time.

"The language of Love's Labour Lost is very much an Elizabethan construct and the play is actually an investigation and critique of the use of language. But the relationships and the characters seem very, very real and contemporary to me," said Michael.

"The men's facades, the women's ability to prick those facades with strength and intelligence, making good sport of pedantry, all of those things exist in all our lives now."

The cast includes Claire Lautier as the Princess of France, Sabrina LeBeauf as Rosaline, Geraint Wyn Davis as Don Adriano de Armada, Floyd King as Boyet, Amir Arison as the King of Navarre, Colleen Delany as Katherine.

Love's Labour Lost is on at The Swan Theatre in Stratford from Thursday, August 17 to Saturday, August 26. For tickets call the box office on 0870 609 1110 or visit www.rsc.org.uk.