Theatre review: Love's Labour's Lost(Shakespeare's Globe)

I've got a couple of shows planned for later this week notorious for their nudity, and it feels like the theme has started early with Love's Labour's Lost: While everyone more or less keeps their kit on at the Globe, Ned Costello spends much of it in matador pants so tight he might as well be naked. It's all done for highly plot-significant reasons, honest, because Indiana Lown-Collins' production turns the delegation of noble ladies from France into one from Spain, and makes flamenco the show's visual and musical language. The King of Navarre (Costello) has vowed to spend three years in study, his many ascetic rules including no contact with women, and roped his best friends Berowne (Transphobia Ltd Employee Philip Arditti,) Dumaine (Jax Guerrero) and Longaville (Philip Labey) into the agreement.

No sooner have they signed the contract than they realise it can't be kept, because the Princess of Spain (Norah Lopez Holden) is on her way on a diplomatic mission that can't be ignored, and she and the King instantly hit it off. Her entourage of Rosaline (Bea Segura,) Katherine (Suzanne Ahmet) and Maria (Katy Stephens) conveniently provides a romantic interest for each of his friends.

Love's Labour's Lost is being sold as this summer season's Shakespearean rarity, and if all performances are as busy as this afternoon's was it'll hopefully encourage the Globe to risk going back to the more varied programming of past years. There are good reasons for its comparative obscurity - as Shakespeare's only all-verse comedy it's unusually reliant on convoluted classical puns for its humour, something which isn't guaranteed to make sides split 400+ years down the line.

It's also a relatively early play so while it's got a solid gold comic premise which Shakespeare utilises to farcical effect in the first half, it does feel like he's losing control of the plot after the interval, a series of loosely-connected comic setpieces before we even get to the notoriously abrupt ending. It's one that benefits more than most from a bold approach and a high concept, and this is where the flamenco comes in.

Choreographer Carmen Igarza's frequent dance breaks become an injection of energy any time the action threatens to slow down, as well as part of the play's language - dance becomes a big part of how the couples flirt with each other, literally peacocking around the stage; it also becomes a bullfight that replaces the original's deer hunt, as well as the way Joshua Hill's Costard and Andro Crespo's Don Armado duel over Jaquenetta (Jimena Larraguivel.) And yes, still having a character whose whole gag is his incomprehensible Spanish accent when most of the characters are now Spanish as well doesn't make sense, but just go with it.

Composers Michael McMahon and Adrián Solá also get to set some of the play's love poetry to music, and if it's not always clear to a modern audience which of the florid verses are meant to be earnest and which are meant to be ridiculous, setting the latter to the tune of "Livin' La Vida Loca" certainly helps get some of those laughs in. Katie Lias' designs complement the Mediterranean feel, as does the current hot weather - I guess we've found the one good side-effect of climate change. Love's Labour's Lost is a play that takes a little creativity to bring to life, but Lown-Collins' production has put in the work and yielded results.

Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare is booking in repertory until the 13th of September at Shakespeare's Globe.

Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Tristram Kenton.