The British Kneehigh Theatre company puts its vivid and inventive stamp on a legendary story of star-crossed love

The visually and emotionally intoxicating Tristan & Yseult takes you on a journey, which, as love itself often does, goes from happy hijinks to hapless heartache. The impressive ride is par for the course from Kneehigh, the British troupe behind the inventive take on Brief Encounter that played at St. Ann’s Warehouse in 2009 before leaping to Broadway. That story was about unconsummated passion. Not this one. French dreamboat Tristan (Dominic Marsh, in full heartthrob mode) and Irish maiden Yseult (Hannah Vassallo, fetching) give in to unquenchable desires despite the fact that it means betraying loved ones and their homelands. Richard Wagner plumbed the ill-fated romance — and all its drama — for his opera Tristan und Isolde. There are motifs of that classic work running through adapter and director Emma Rice’s version, which unfolds on a circular stage with a catwalk and a towering mast that’s used for various acrobatic effects. It’s all very theatrical — and it’s not too concerned about being very silly (those sparkly floral antennae, for instance). A live band croons tunes like “Only the Lonely” and “Dream Lover” to make sure you get that love doesn’t come easy.