Theatre review: Love's Labour's Lost (RSC/RST)

I would rather see a show relatively early in its run, especially since I review them online and people could read my recommendations and decide what to see based on them (stop laughing at the back, I've been assured it happened once.) But sometimes between rail strikes and me being busy the rest of the run I end up in Stratford-upon-Avon for the final matinée, so you're reading this after the run's ended, sorry if you fancied it. And yes, speaking of fancying, the star name here is Luke Thompson, who for the last eleven years I've been watching on stage have his clothes fall off on the slightest pretext with such regularity it can't all just be down to thirsty directors, he's got to be initiating some of it himself. In an unrelated matter, the show that's now given him above-the-title star status is Bridgerton. In any case, it's also always interesting to see what a new regime at one of the major theatres has chosen as its opening production.

Theatre review: Love's Labour's Lost(Sam Wanamaker Playhouse)

It's great to see Jade Williams back at the Globe, even if it is indoors in the Swanamaker so there's no groundlings for her to vomit on. She and Dharmesh Patel pair up to play Rosaline and Berowne, the proto-Beatrice and Benedick who appear as one of the central three romantic couples in Love's Labour's Lost. That's right, three; Nick Bagnall's production, although not, to my knowledge, touring, has the kind of cast-size you'd expect of a "tiny" touring production, with eight actors covering all the roles. A cerain amount of editing is needed to make that work, and in this case Longueville and Maria have been edited right out of the play altogether. What's left is the story of the King of Navarre (Paul Stocker,) who talks his friends Berowne and Dumaine (Tom Kanji) into joining him in a puritanically strict three-year course of study that includes swearing off the company of women.

Theatre review: Love's Labour's Lost (RSC / RST)

The RSC's six-year run through the Shakespeare canon now comes to a pair of comedies that possibly share a greater connection than is immediately apparent: There's a theory (one that I personally find very likely,) that the "lost" play Love's Labour's Won is in fact simply an alternative title for one of the extant comedies. The most likely candidate is Much Ado About Nothing, as its warring lovers Beatrice and Benedick could well be older versions of Rosaline and Berowne, the sparring partners separated at the end of Love's Labour's Lost. To test the theory, the two plays are being paired in productions by Christopher Luscombe at the RST, with Michelle Terry and Edward Bennett playing the lovers in both. They also see the RSC make their own contribution to the First World War centenary, as they're being set either side of the Great War, which is here what parts the couple.

Theatre review: Love's Labour's Lost (Grassroots Shakespeare London / Old Red Lion)

Apparently not wanting to give themselves an easy ride in any way, the second play Grassroots Shakespeare London have chosen for their Old Red Lion repertory is the early comedy Love's Labour's Lost. It's easy to forget how much of a mess, plot-wise, some of the world's best-loved plays can be, but though there's fun to be had here, the production doesn't do anything to disguise the play's problems. Ferdinand, King of Navarre (Lucas Livesey) decides he wants to dedicate himself to study, and convinces his three best friends and his court to join him in a three-year vow to abstain from all other pursuits - especially romantic ones. No sooner is the ink dry on the contract though than the Princess of France (Andrew Gruen) arrives with her own entourage of three women, so each of the four men has someone to severely test his vow of celibacy.

Theatre review: Love's Labour's Lost (Deafinitely Theatre / Globe to Globe)

This week is brought to you by the letter L: After Love, Love, Love on Monday it's now the turn of Love's Labour's Lost. This is my final Globe to Globe trip, and the only one that really counts as Shakespeare in a foreign language, as I speak Greek, and the Othello was only translated into a different dialect of English. The language is British Sign Language, and the show's performed by Deafinitely Theatre, who will be following the Globe stint with a brief tour. I chose a BSL show as something I could take my sister to, as she did a course in it last year. What we didn't know when we booked was that her teacher, Nadia Nadarajah, would actually be playing the Princess of France, who along with her ladies-in-waiting arrives in the Court of Navarre. When the King and his friends fall for the ladies, it seriously challenges their recently-made oaths of celibacy.