Who'd have thought it - Edward Bond at Chichester? You won't see a less likely combination until Placido Domingo sings Aida at the Albert Hall with a cast of thousands.

Bond's take on the last days of Shakespeare's life looks at the playwright as he comes to terms with his failing powers as a writer and his need to ensure an income while he waits for his inevitable death. It's a bold set-up, and Shakespeare devotees may well be unhappy at the way Bond portrays the Bard casually allowing men to be thrown off their land while he frantically tries to keep his money intact and his unhappy wife from having any of it.

But then, “everything's about money” as Combe, the wealthy landowner puts it. Shakespeare’s deal with Combe is a focal point of the play, the agreement having a knock-on effect on the local population. While Angus Jackson's production doesn't skirt over these issues, this is less of a political rant that it might have been.

While there's some very Brechtian discourse about agrarian economics, this is not a particularly didactic text. There are plenty of swipes about the iniquity of driving poor shareholders from their smallholdings but this not about simple economics. There's more of a Chekhovian feel as Shakespeare comes to terms with his failing powers and the deadening effect of the family around him.

As Shakespeare, Patrick Stewart has the slow, measured talk of a man who has seen life and has little more to say, either in speech or in his writing. There's a hint of sardonic smile playing around his lips as if thinking that life is a huge joke. It’s a wonderful, low-key, world-weary performance. The only speech of any real anger is a rant about the cruelty of Elizabethan London, sentiments that sit oddly with a man who produced Titus Andronicus and whose work is spattered with blood-sport references.

There’s some strong support: Richard McCabe's Ben Jonson shamelessly steals his one scene and Alex Price's young man burns with anger. There's an excellent Combe from Jason Watkins, he could easily be a pantomime villain but his every move is argued logically. There are some strange accents however. For a play set in Warwickshire, why does everyone speak in a west country burr?

This is a play that's never quite sure whether it's a critique of capitalism, an examination of what happens when the creative spark has gone, or an investigation of the dynamics of family life. It's a heady mix, but it does offer a rounded portrayal of Shakespeare, the man.

- Maxwell Cooter