Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre: Love’s Labour’s Lost October 20, 2009

Self-denial is in fashion at the court of Navarre where the young King and three of his courtiers solemnly forswear all pleasures in favor of serious study. But the Princess of France and her all-too-lovely entourage have other ideas, and it isn’t long before young love, with its glad eyes, hesitations and embarrassments, has broken every self-imposed rule of the all-male ‘academe’. Shakespeare’s boisterous celebration of the claims of young love is a festive parade of every weapon in the youthful playwright’s comic arsenal – from excruciating cross-purposes to silly impersonations, drunkenness, bustups and pratfalls. It’s also his most joyful banquet of language, groaning with puns, rhymes, bizarre syntax, grotesque coinages and parody. Directed by Dominic Dromgoole, with designs by Jonathan Fensom and music by Claire van Kampen, the production employs Renaissance staging, costume and music. “With a delightful deisgn and jaunty music, it has abundant charm…entirely enchanting.” (The Times, London)

Presented by the University Musical Society, www.ums.org.

Official Website: http://www.ums.org/s_current_season/artist.asp?pageid=534