It could well have been a winter's night, on Saturday, as the crowds escaped the rain and clustered around the central, circular space in the Footsbarn tent to watch the travelling players unfurl their magic carpet.
From the ancient kingdom of Sicilia, where Leontes wrongly accused his queen, Hermione, of adultery and poisoned the charmed air of his court, to the pastoral idyll of Bohemia, where his abandoned daughter, Perdita, was raised by shepherds, the dreamlike world of Shakespeare's strange, late romance was evoked with playful inventiveness and flair.
Gorgeous, jewel-coloured costumes, fluid, choreographed movement and effectively draped chiffon screens captivated the eye, while the verse was spoken, on the whole, with just enough clarity and conviction.
The exception was Hermione, whose great speech in self-defence was thrown away, inaudibly.
But the text was not the most important element in this production; Footsbarn have pared down the second, Bohemian section of the play considerably, maintaining a rollercoaster pace as the plot moves towards reconciliation and the fruits of Leontes's repentence and atonement.
While a Christian ethic dominates the concluding scenes, the power of ancient, unseen forces, of the supernatural and mysterious, is never far from the surface in this play and Footsbarn, through vivid imagery, chanting choruses and other-wordly masks, have kept it firmly under the spotlight.
Runs from tomorrow until Sunday. For booking information, phone 1890 575655