Does anyone know how long this one is? I'm seeing the matinee on Thursday and want to know if I'll be in a desperate rush to get to the NT in time for the evening performance of Oedipus, or if I can manage to get a comfortable meal in between plays. Thanks.

I saw it yesterday and it was probably around 2 hours 45 mins - I saw the matinee and I was at the train station by 6pm. It can't be more than half an hour from there to Waterloo so you should be fine to grab a bite to eat before Oedipus, which I think doesn't start till 8pm.
I really enjoyed LLL - good solid traditional bit of Shakespeare done well.

Thanks Abby, sounds as if I'll be able to make the 18.04 back to Waterloo, or maybe even the 17.49 if I'm lucky. I'll let you know what I think of the Kingston LLL, especially when compared to the RSC LLL, which I'll be seeing the following day.

After seeing this and the RSC production of LLL on consecutive days, I think I'll have to declare it a tie (3-3), though the two productions are quite different. The Rose production is certainly much more conventional, which isn't necessarily a bad thing – the verse speaking is decent enough (which you would expect from a Peter Hall production), the same can't be said for the RSC production (see that thread). The RSC version is funnier, but the Rose version delivers what is there better, if you know what I mean.

One big minus is Peter Bowles' Armado, who isn't funny at all, which seems to be intentional, instead he's played as a conventional serious part, very odd. For some reason he doesn't have a Spanish accent – fair enough to dispense with I suppose, but it becomes a little strange to do so and still keep the lines that refer to (and make fun of) the way he speaks when he sounds as English as, well, as Peter Bowles I suppose. And when Jaquenetta is played by 20-something Ella Smith (who appears to be quite out of her depth here), that relationship becomes more than a little creepy.

I did like the Rose Costard much better, I've not yet unpacked after getting home and without the programme the actor's name unfortunately escapes me, a very sweet and lovely Costard, whereas I found the RSC Costard mostly annoying.

In conclusion: the Rose LLL is nice but a bit dull, though if you like your Shakespeare spoken properly this is certainly one for you. I did find that staging disappointing, like the recent A Doll's House it makes little use of the Rose's stage and could just as well have been performed in any old proscenium arch theatre.