True to analogy form The Changeling’s production values are impressively high. Paul Wills foreboding fortress of a set conjures the right oppressive tone, helped along significantly by Ben Omerod’s masterful lighting and Olly Fox’s menacing score. The set’s anachronisms which seem to be an attempt to offer a touch of psychological depth (why else would a seventeenth century asylum in Catholic Spain have a lit-up EXIT sign?) jar a little, but there are bigger issues to grapple with than a spot of out-of-place electrical lighting.

Above all the play feels rushed. There’s no deliberating by the characters and consequently no sense of depth. The ease with which they all embrace murder, duplicity, revenge and madness doesn’t allow for any real character development, which meant that the play’s moral conclusion is rather false and empty. It’s hard to tell whether in different hands it would have felt like a more highbrow production or whether Middleton and Rowley’s play was written to offer up some quick fix bawdy entertainment and little more.

Whatever the case, if you’re happy to put its problems aside and indulge in a touch of well-meaning melodrama, The Changeling, just like Hollyoaks, fits the bill nicely.

 The Changeling runs at The Hall for Cornwall until 24 November. For further information and tickets go to hallforcornwall.co.uk