For potency of language and dynamism of plot, Milton’s Paradise Lost is easily a match for any of Shakespeare’s finest. However Milton’s work was not conceived as a drama in the same sense as, say, King Lear or Othello - so its translation to a full stage production is an intriguing prospect.

The Hackney Empire certainly gives the Oxford Stage Company the right setting for a full-blooded performance, with its deep stage and ample opportunities for flashy production values. And they have certainly taken advantage of the latter - with a black backdrop with green electronic writing sliding down it, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Limbo was in fact the Matrix. And there’s planet-gazing a-plenty as Satan wends the long hard way out of hell and up to light.

Strip away the razzle dazzle however, and what is left is a production stranded in its very own limbo. As Milton sagely observed, the mind is indeed capable of making a hell of heaven, a heaven of hell, but it is hard pushed to envisage either on this stage. Far from a ‘mournful gloom’, Hell here is a cross between a circus and a strip club - which might be hell to some but it’s not exactly eternal torment in molten fire. It’s hard to see why Satan would risk God’s wrath a second time when he could light up, sit back and enjoy the show. Hell should be full of horrors terrible enough to drive Satan to attempt another challenge to his omnipotent rival, not just a bunch of pretentious layabouts.

The acting is fine, if not inspired, though this is probably down to a lack of strong direction. Are we really supposed to believe in the Chorus as a hoodie-wearing hoodlum - no matter how many times he grabs his crotch - when he speaks in RADA-inflected tones? Credible in Oxford, perhaps, but not Hackney. Jasper Britton as Satan fares better, and is a highly watchable actor. But would God really be forced to banish Satan just for being a Gene Wilder-esque eccentric? There is none of the malice, fear and glittering humour of Milton’s Satan under Rupert Goold’s direction. Surely mankind didn’t lose paradise because of a bit of slapstick?

As a piece of entertainment the production is certainly a decent way of passing a couple of hours, but as to whether it succeeds in bringing to life Milton’s poem as a dramatic work - unfortunately it’s not just paradise that gets lost along the way.

Run over.