“A punishing, blood-drenched 12 hours.” That’s how the Daily Telegraph described an RSC production of Shakespeare’s trilogy Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3. Or you can cut the epic down to two parts, call it Rose Rage, and use an all-male cast, as Propeller did in their acclaimed version.

Now Oxford Theatre Guild has rung the changes: their new production features a complete reversal of genders, and the overall length is down to three hours. Director Alistair Nunn has also wielded the axe on Shakespeare’s script, cutting the number of characters by 90 per cent to just 30, played by a strong ensemble team of 17 actors. To make things abundantly clear, everyone wears colour coded T-shirts carrying their current character’s name — a clever device, although I shamefacedly admit that the snigger-worthy effect of seeing, for example, HENRY emblazoned across a very evidently female chest took a while to wear off.

Nunn concentrates on the rivalry and anger between Henry and York’s families. From the start, Lindsey-Anne Bridges makes it plain that Henry VI is far too nice and soft-voiced to be a match for Helen Taylor’s bloodthirsty, sneering Duke of York. Circling round like vultures are characters like forceful Gloucester (Alison Sweatman) and Richard of Gloucester, the future Richard III. Chloe Orrock convincingly portrays him as a thoroughly nasty, rather puerile piece of work. The reversal of genders has its most dramatic, almost Freudian, effect in the relationship between Henry and Margaret (Craig Finlay). Their hands are quickly and constantly all over each other, but it’s definitely Margaret who rules the roost.

Nunn keeps the action going at a cracking pace, and if you can’t stand the sight of blood, worry not: there isn’t any, as all executions are dispatched in a clinically clean manner.