English Chamber Theatre Hamilton City Hall ends tonight The many expressions of love know no boundaries, and last night's production entitled "As Long As Ye Both'' cast an often sardonic, sometimes humorous, and occasionally warm gaze on the thorny subject of courtship and marriage.

From the melodrama of ten-year-old poet Daisy Ashford to the memoirs of Queen Victoria on her wedding day to the stark portrait painted in Judith Viorst's "The Honeymoon Is Over'', the writings explored the emotional gamut of love roller-coastering into marriage slip sliding into "getting to know each other''.

The English Chamber Theatre aims to provide short, simple theatre pieces with relatively few stage props -- the spare set was accented only by a candelabra, crystal water decanter, and a few chairs and couches.

The benefit of such shows is that the absence of visual distractions makes it much easier to discern a good performance.

The primary biographical scripts relied on the poetry and prose of literary greats such as George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Ogden Nash, and my own personal favourite e.e. cummings.

As a literary buff, I liked being given a sampling of the works of a number of different writers -- some of whom I was familiar with, others whose works I keep meaning to read, and others that I'd never heard of.

This show was an absolute delight -- as a true poetry aficionado, I have always been particularly interested in innovative formats used to bring the beauty of written words alive.

And the method used by the English Chamber Theatre successfully highlighted the individual strengths of a very diverse range of writing.

Poetry was interspersed with anecdotes, extracts, songs, and dramatic scenes that explored all the plateaus encountered on love's uneven terrain.

The quality of writing chosen for the show was of a very high calibre, and relied on a combination of the familiar and the less well-known works of famous and not-so-famous writers -- for example, rather than performing over-exposed passages from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet'' the group instead chose a scene from "Twelfth Night''.

I was absolutely riveted by an excerpt from Laurie Lee's "Cider With Rosie'', which described the separation of an old couple who had never spent a night apart -- which followed closely on the heels of a hilarious poem by Odgen Nash about children, the troublesome products of marriage.

It is a tribute to the talent of the company members that works representing polar opposites in form, content, and style were woven so seamlessly together.

The English Chamber Theatre has performed at previous Bermuda Festivals, including productions on the dramatised letters of Roosevelt and Churchill as well as "Beethoven in Vienna''.

Call me a romantic (and I believe in the power of fate rather than the conspiracy of good marketing) but I was particularly tickled to discover that the performance wasn't merely a good act.

The two main performers, Isla Blair and Julian Glover, are husband and wife celebrating their 30th anniversary here in Bermuda -- the same place where they spent their honeymoon.

The third member of the trio, Tim Brierly, provided lovely piano and guitar solos -- the rest of the audience seemed to enjoy the performance as much as I did, occasionally joining Mr. Brierly to sing ballads such as "Daisy Belle''.

The English Chamber Theatre gave a top-notch performance, and did an excellent job of showing the many facets of love in all of its complexity.

Kim Dismont- Robinson THEATRE THR REVIEW REV