Earlier this year Oxford University student theatre company Acorn Productions mounted an ambitious and very successful production of Homer’s Odyssey. Now Acorn has moved on to Peter Shaffer’s The Royal Hunt of the Sun — described thus by Felix Barker in the Evening News when it premiered in 1964: “In the whole history of drama, has anything more ambitious been attempted than The Royal Hunt of the Sun? Has any other spectacle achieved such visual excitement, and so touched the historical imagination?”

In the play, Francisco Pizarro and his band of would-be soldiers set sail from Spain, intent on reaching Peru, a land where gold is reputedly as common as wood. The expedition is spurred on by the thought of untold riches, but there’s a religious aspect too — Atahuallpa, God-King of the Incas, is watching events unfold.

Acorn’s production is being directed by third-year student Charlotte Beynon. What, I asked her, drew her to this play?

“I think what first attracted me was the spectacle, and the timelessness of the story itself. As I started to work on it by myself, before I thought about casting or assembling my production team, it became more and more apparent that the power of the play could be in putting the audience in the same position as the Spanish expedition in discovering a completely alien culture.”

Rehearsals are now well under way, with the cast having been required to return early from Long Vacation to take part.

“I have a massive cast of 23, so the whole rehearsal process has been quite challenging,” Charlotte told me. “The biggest initial challenge was to move away from Shaffer’s original staging: he regarded it as symbolically and dramatically perfect. So to change it completely was a leap of faith.”

Acorn’s production of The Royal Hunt of the Sun is at the Oxford Playhouse from Wednesday to Saturday, October 30. Tickets 01865 305305 (www.oxfordplayhouse.com).