Fall Play: Love's Labour's Lost

The King of Navarre and three of his lords make a pact to swear off women for three years and devote themselves to study. What happens, then, when the Princess of France and her entourage of ladies arrive with urgent business for the King? Will the men keep their sworn oaths to be pure in mind and body, or will the women force them to break their vows and embrace romance? With colorful characters, misdirected love letters, secret affairs, and ridiculous disguises, LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST is a giddy and sweet celebration of falling in love.  

 

Shakespeare's play, believed to have been written about 1597 for a commissioned court performance, satirizes different historical figures of the day and features the Bard at perhaps his most word-playful. As the play has aged, it's lost the connection to the period personalities upon which it's based; and it is embraced now as more of a curiosity. Although the plot is wafer-thin, the characters are fun and the language rich. For our production, we've made some edits and "improvements," as some of the jokes and wordplay have not stood the test of time; but in its original format, the play includes Shakespeare's longest single speech, his longest scene, and the longest word in the canon: "honorificabilitudinitatibus," spoken beautifully in our production by junior Abby Myers.

 

LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST features the talents of Colleen Daly, Katie Davidson, Elizabeth Downs, Bryce Elmore, Ruffin Henry, Julianna Holley, Shinwoo Kim, Joanna Moody, Jacob Mushatt, Abby Myers, Grayson Myers, Alexandra O'Sullivan, Ethan Taylor, Isabella Torres, Steven Wagner, and Emily Weinmann. Production stage managers are Maya Cvitanovich and Caroline Fiore, with technical support from Barbie Cassavetes, Scott Freeman, Tai Suarez, Jane Fantaci, Destiny Laugand, and Miles Bellaire.

 

The poster for our production is the work of senior Emily Weinmann. You may remember her fabulous design for last year's Hamlet, which brought some familiar elements of her work together in a beautiful trompe l'oeil image that perfectly captured the theatricality of our production.  This year, Emily is experimenting with digital design, which connects nicely with our concept of setting the production in the 1980s. Emily's use of geometric shapes, intersecting lines, repeated figures, and juxtapositions of color underscores the romantic couplings of the plot and the whimsical chaos that arises from the lovers' misunderstandings.

 

All shows are in Weinmann Auditorium. All seats are $10. Tickets are available at mpcdsloves.bpt.me.

Tickets will also be available at the door.