Project Arts Centre, Dublin Until Jun 18 8pm 14-20 projectartscentre.ie 01-8819613/4

Just how rough can the path of true love get? Loose Canon Theatre, back in action following an unwanted hiatus, here take Shakespeare’s supposedly gossamer comedy and emphasise its harder edge. Advance word suggests that it’s the same story using the same words, but given an expletive emphasis.

“Is it about fairies and pixies and the course of true love not running smoothly?” asks its publicity. “Or is it about getting f*cked off your face – so f*cked off your face that you end up f*cking a donkey?” A question that has long occupied literary scholars, but, however snarling your interpretation of a classic might be, there’s still a danger of limiting its meaning to binge drinking and bestiality.

Besides, the play wasn’t particularly pure to begin with. Here characters have been “wooed by the sword”, love quadrangles are complicated by hallucinogens, and romantic yearning is nothing compared to ecstatic masochism: “The more you beat me, the more I fawn on you.”

Director Jason Byrne, working with a cast well versed in his natural performance style, doesn’t need to look far to discover the play’s sordid side, but does it contain some giddy and uncomfortable truths about ourselves? To judge from the title, Byrne’s just asking.

Can’t see that? Catch this

Romeo and Juliet/Twelfth NightFront Square, TCD