"The most wooden performances ever," wrote one London critic of the latest Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production. "Superb!"

For its new staging of Shakespeare's epic poem "Venus and Adonis," which tells of the seduction of the handsome youth Adonis by Venus, the hot-blooded goddess of love, director Gregory Doran turned to Japan's bunraku puppet theater for inspiration.

The results have set the critics drooling, and not only for artistic reasons. "[Venus is] a new star," wrote the London-based Evening Standard's reviewer, "a sultry young temptress with a low-cut chiffon dress. She should be auditioned forthwith for Juliet or Ophelia."