Jules Hobbs and Richard Curnow have developed a highly entertaining way of exploring Shakespeare’s plays, from the inside, through the eyes and ears of minor characters.

They are irreverent, quirky, enlightening and hugely entertaining.

Mr Curnow in modern dress is Osric, a 17-year-old courtier in the court of King Claudius at the time of the Elsinore massacre 35 years earlier, in which Prince Hamlet and numerous other members of the Danish nobility died.

Osric – call me Oz – is in therapy, tormented by a guilty secret from that time which he cannot bring himself to reveal. That is until first the local paper, then radio and finally national television latch on to him after he rubbishes a biography of Hamlet – The People’s Prince – by Hamlet’s friend Horatio. A clever chat show host finally goads his secret from him.

The obvious parallel is someone besmirching the fairy princess image of Diana Princess of Wales.

Ms Hobbs is an endearing Meg, third witch from the left in the Macbeth tragedy. She is also in the present day and in group therapy, but is over 400 years old and cannot die until she has made amends for her part in the Scottish murders.

Courtesy of Tardis Travel recommended by Which (Witch) magazine – come on keep up – Meg, born in Avebury, travels back to 1606 to find out what has become of the some of the victims of the Macbeth’s evil plotting. At the time Meg was a 16 work-experience witch and not really responsible for the ambiguous prophecies of her tutors on the blasted heath. But as a properly brought up young witch she feels she should have said or done something as she was aware what they were doing was wrong.

Both pieces are cleverly constructed, and have lots of tasty, topical one-liners. They could change forever the way you look at Shakespeare.

If you get a chance to see a local performance by Finding the Will, don’t miss it.