Love’s Labour’s Lost review – paella, bullfighting and flamenco make Shakespeare’s farce a fiesta
Shakespeare’s Globe, LondonChoreographers Carmen Igarza and Vanessa Guevara deserve to take a bow as spectacular dance and movement add passion to the seemingly unfinished playThe fact that Love’s Labour’s Lost...
By Mark Lawson · The Guardian Culture
Shakespeare’s Globe, London Choreographers Carmen Igarza and Vanessa Guevara deserve to take a bow as spectacular dance and movement add passion to the seemingly unfinished play The fact that Love’s Labour’s Lost is relatively unloved by Shakespeare producers and scholars is due to this mid-16th-century comedy being an early example of his dramatic craft – an RSC online timeline lists it ninth in the 38 main attributed plays – and an unusually inconclusive ending: the typical act five marry-go-round is suddenly deferred for a year. These problems mean that even purists object less than usual to a solving directorial concept. Tom Littler, in alfresco stagings playing this summer in Guildford and Richmond, pairs the seemingly incomplete piece with Much Ado Nothing (which some believe to be an otherwise lost Shakespeare piece called Love’s Labour’s Won), unifying the characters and plot lines. Continue reading...