Westward Ho! must not be confused, save for the coincidence of its title, with the 1855 novel by Charles Kingsley that later inspired the naming of a new-build seaside resort in Devon. This Westward Ho! is a rarely seen Jacobean play by Thomas Dekker and John Webster. Dating from 1604, it takes its title from the cry of watermen operating a Thames taxi service: prosaic Brentford, as it seems now, is as far west as any of the colourful gallery of characters plans to get.

A joyfully irreverent and very entertaining production of the play was brought to Oxford last week by a large bunch of young actors (and musicians) from King Edward VI School, in Stratford-upon-Avon. As befits an academic institution attended by Shakespeare himself, the school gave a performance in authentic style with the ‘Edward’s Boys’, as they’re called, playing the female as well as the male parts.

But while this was true to the period, the action was certainly not, with director Perry Mills having updated it to the glam rock era (with music to match) of Bowie and Bolan. The school did not forget, however, that this was also the heyday of Benny Hill, whose milkman Ernie got a comic outing, and Dana whose All Kinds of Everything was deliberately and gleefully murdered by one of the evening’s stars, Jeremy Franklin.

As the unashamed bawd Mistress Birdlime, he set the plot in motion by trying to fix sexual shenanigans between a quartet of libertines (Alex Marcel, Jonny Clowes, Barnaby Bos, pictured, and Joshua Danks-Smith and three local wives (George Hodson, Henry Hodson, pictured, and Finlay Hatch).

In their wigs and finery, the boys looked entirely the part as women — which, of course, added hugely to the fun. Aside from the camping about, there was some decent acting on view too.