There's a Rave Weekender going on down in the Forest of Arden and we're all invited with glow sticks provided!

Shropshire Youth Theatre have taken and shaken Shakespeare's As You Like It and propelled it into the Brit Pop era of the 1990s, complete with marauding football hooligans and hapless police officers. But the core of the story is completely faithful to the Bard, despite the temptation to include a few words he might struggle to recognise. He'd probably never heard of a 'hardcore rave'.

As you might imagine, the cast of 27 teenagers are universally top drawer, but you would expect me to highlight at least some of them. So here goes.

The central casting of Rosalind and Celia is superb and in this production there is no way adapter / director Lisa Morris is going to allow Ella Jones' Celia (in frock and climbing boots with odd laces) to play second fiddle to Matilda Boughton's Rosalind.

They are a beautifully balanced pairing. They are clearly on the same wavelength and even more clearly enjoying themselves. They deliver Shakespeare's lines with a relaxed natural authority and the occasional modern hint of a street-cred truculent teenager that reminded me of Catherine Tate's un-bovvered school girl.

Whilst Ella is the sympathetic clown of the duo, Matilda is a classic, traditional Shakespearean heroine - tall, self-possessed and glamorous. Her range is excellent - from tearful, forlorn lover (pining for Sam Bruton's noble, thwarted and boiler suited Orlando) to ultra-organised match maker. Her throw away line to Orlando that he has “overthrown much more than your enemies” is a neatly judged mixture of tease and regret.  I don't know what life-plans these two fine actresses have, but I hope they will not stray too far from the stage.

Talent must run in Matilda's family because her younger brother Oscar also shone as Silvius, who has the hopeless hots for Abbie O'Shea's goth-ish Pheobe. Oscar has the good fortune to be an actor who makes the audience smile just by stepping onto the stage. He also gives his speeches a contemporary tenor. He is excellent at acting off the ball and his face is particularly expressive as he follows the action. His “I'm pissed off” look is a hoot. And, despite his youth, he clearly understands the angst of being infatuated with a girl who isn't.

I know I'm not being fair by being selective but I must mention Chloe Wrench as Audrey who is being pursued by Seth Richard's smooth talking Touchstone. She looks just like a glammed up, pouting, hair-twirling escapee from the 80s girl group Bananarama. It's a lovely cameo of a brainless disco diva of the time.

Joe Holland's Duke has enough bearing to possess the stage, and the sarcasm of Valerie Egerton's wheelbarrow-wielding Corin caught my ear.

The fight scenes (well choreographed by Connor Monroe) are no-holds-barred, heart-in-mouth, full-blooded scraps. Sam Bruton and Teddy Shoosmith (as Charles the Wrestler) and the others are very well rehearsed and fully committed, and I wouldn't want to be their parents watching in the stalls.

The 90s rave theme runs though the whole show with music breaks to tap your glow sticks to and when the banquet in the forest is brought on (usually a feast-laden table) it's just packets of McDonald's and cans of Carling - a nice touch.

There is plenty of humour to enjoy in this production. It's no fun trying to tell 400-year-old jokes, unless you are Hamish Findley. Many a past production has cast a recognised comic as Jaques and many of them have come a cropper. But Hamish gets his laughs alright.

He traipses around the stage like a dislocated rag doll. His posturing, gesturing and timing are spot on. Hamish delivers his quips with professional aplomb and his famous 'seven ages of man' speech makes absolute sense and is hilarious to boot. It's worth the ticket money for that performance alone.

Yet again this talented troop of Shropshire Youth Theatre actors have pushed the boundaries of their art to the limit to great effect.

As You Like It continues to show at Theatre Severn's Walker Theatre until Thursday 26 March.