Reviewed by
James Karas
When the Royal Shakespeare Company puts on a
play by Shakespeare you pay attention and get tickets. When the performances
are at the beautiful Theatre Royal Haymarket you run. The two comedies playing
in repertory are Love’s Labour’s Lost and Love’s Labour’s Won which makes for
wonderful symmetry but falls short in veracity. The second play is in fact Much
Ado About Nothing but Love’s Labour’s Won does serve as its subtitle.
The Princess (Leah Whitaker) and her ladies in
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Love’s Labour’s Lost is a tough play for modern
audiences. It relies on ostentatious use of language. Rhyming couplets,
wordplay, alliteration and a showing off of Shakespeare’s ability with English
are the hallmarks of the play. At one point the aptly named police constable Dull
(Chris McCalphy) is told by the schoolmaster Holofernes (Steven Pacey) that he
did not speak a word, he replies “Nor understood none neither, sir.”
The plot itself is rather silly. The King of
Navarre (Sam Alexander) and three of his companions decide to go monastic
including having nothing to do with women for three years. Just at that time a
French princess (Leah Whitaker) and three of her ladies arrive at the Navarre
court. You have guessed the plot already.
Along with the King, the Princess and their
retinues we need some other preferably comic characters to add to the merriment.
The Spaniard Don Armando (John Hodgkinson) with his fractured pronunciation is there
and he will help with things like pronouncing peace like piss. The pedantic
Holofernes, the dim gardener Costard (Nick Haverson), the lovely maid Jaquennetta,
the hall boy Moth (Peter McGovern) are all there and their names alone suggest
comedy and they do provide it.
William Be
The King’s men, Berowne (Edward Bennett),
Longaville (William Belchambers) and Dumaine (Tunji Kasim) get together with the Princess’s ladies,
Rosaline (Lisa Dillon), Katharine (Rebecca Collingwood) and Maria (Paige
Carter) in high-end mating rituals but there are not enough complications to keep
us entertained for two plus hours. The men decide to entertain the ladies by disguising
themselves as Russians and putting on exotic dancing. The ladies disguise their
identities so that their suitors address the wrong lady.
We need more. Shakespeare provides a show where
people put on a show called the Nine Worthies, historical figures are satirized
and caricatured to fine comic effect.
In a marvellous stroke, designer Simon Higlett
set the play in an Elizabethan stately home. The gorgeous backdrop that we see
is the façade of Charlecote Park, country home of the Lucy family. Shakespeare
was caught poaching on its extensive grounds and was brought before a
magistrate. It may be just a legend but it does make for a great connection
between a 21st century production of two of his plays (Much Ado uses
the same set) and Shakespeare’s youth.
Director Christopher Luscombe knows the difficulty
of staging Love’s Labour’s Lost and making it entirely approachable. And
he takes no chances. The episodes with the Russians and the Worthies are turned
into raucous musical numbers. Arcane language be damned – Love’s Labour’s Lost
can be made hugely enjoyable. It may well be the funniest production of the
play you will ever see.
_____
Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare continues in
repertory until March 18, 2017 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, England.
www.trh.co.uk
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