The stage is set.

Lucky old me was back at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon last night, this time to see 'Love's Labours Won', otherwise known as 'Much Ado about Nothing'.

I only studied a couple of Shakespeare plays at school and frankly it was agony. We were badly taught by our 80 year old English teacher whose stinky little white dog sat wrapped around her ankles through all the lessons. We raked through the plays line by line, interpreting and underlining and analysing and picking over the bones without ever just appreciating the stories.

As a direct result of this fine schooling Shakespeare's work was impenetrable to me and became something to be feared. I think it's a common enough story. I've braved (and even enjoyed) a few of his plays since, but always with a degree of wariness and I have never really embraced Shakespeare - until dear blipmates, today!

Before I left for Stratford I snaffled our Shakespeare-plays-retold-for-kids book and mugged up on the story. It definitely helped and amazingly within 10 minutes of the play starting I could even understand the language. It was no longer impregnable gobble-de-gook. Huzzah!

The play was set post-First World War which was another potential problem given that the only Shakespeare play I saw with school was a bad version of The Merchant of Venice (which we hadn't read) retold in the 20s. It's made me suspicious of plays that are transferred to different settings but here the era felt perfect and showed just how timeless the play is. The main protagonists return from war to find love (or fight against it) the minute they arrive home, like you do.

It was beautifully directed and choreographed with fluid movement and shades of dark and light through out - there was sadness and laughter and joy to be had and even some proper belly laughs.

To me it's amazing that a play written 500 years ago can still provoke such strong emotional responses today. A testiment both to the original writing and to the quality of the modern production. For the first time I was tempted to join in with the 'Bravos' at the end. I didn't but I will now. Bravo! Actually I wish I could've witnessed it played to a bawdy Elizabethan audience - I'm sure there'd have been more than a cringeworthy Bravo at the end!

So finally I've enjoyed a Shakespeare play just for what it is and I've realised that his plays aren't popular because of some quaint appreciation of old things like archane language and doublets or because of some academic appreciation of highfalutin ideas that are way beyond my grasp. No, they're popular because they're good solid stories filled with universal truths and entertaining plots that make them as relevant and watchable today as the day that they were written.

All I can say is that while it took me a long time I got there eventually!