Love’s Labours Lost
Wednesday 1st to Saturday 11th December 2004
Friargate Theatre
Charles Hutchinson in the The Yorkshire Evening Press wrote:
FIVE down, 32 to go, York Shakespeare Project’s 20-year plan to bash out all the Bard’s plays continues to be too much of a private pleasure.
Last night’s house was worryingly small, which must be demoralising for this labour of love. Maybe the decision to stage Romeo And Juliet in Rowntree Park next July will bring new impetus.
Love’s Labour’s Lost, the first comedy to give naturalism the red card, established the template for student behaviour. King Ferdinand of Navarre (Paul Toy) and his dandy young courtiers Berowne (Dermot Hill), Dumaine (John Hasselgreen) and Longaville (David Orme) vow to focus solely on study and self-denial, but we all know how it really works. Wave goodbye to your parents, and it’s all girls and partying.
Or here, recast in Edwardian elegance by director Chris Rawson, the student life means picnic baskets, cricket bats, tennis balls and highest society ladies: the Princess of France (haughty yet naughty Beverley Chapman), Rosaline (Mandy Newby), Maria (Fiona Mozeley) and Katherine (Sukie Chapman).
Like driving on a motorway on Fridays, this is a fraught drama, with several trunk roads feeding the traffic-jammed main artery. There is Costard the errant Clown (the outstanding Frank Brogan), then add slothful constable Dull (Lee Maloney), vainglorious Spanish grandee Don Armado (a booming Robin Sanger), the fluttering Moth (Gillian Bayes) and the drunken rustic wench, Jaquanetta (Ali Borthwick). Enter the waffling, scholastic Holofernes (Sam Valentine) and Sir Nathaniel, the curate (Kit Bird), and Shakespeare leads us down the country path of masks and misdirected missives.
In Shakespeare’s monsoon of words, men don’t say what they mean and women cut to the quick (nothing new there then!). “I don’t understand you,” the ladies keep saying, and you know the feeling.
There is a barrage of what Boris Johnson would call “inverted piffle”, plenty of energy too, but the players in this frippery laugh more often than the audience.
See also: The British Theatre Guide review by Peter Lathan.
Cast
| King of Navarre | Paul Toy |
| Berowne | Dermott Hill |
| Longaville | David Orme |
| Dumaine | John Hasselgreen |
| Anthony Dull | Lee Maloney |
| Costard | Frank Brogan |
| Don Adriano De Armando | Robin Sanger |
| Moth | Gillian Bayes |
| Jaquanetta | Ali Borthwick |
| Boyet | Richard Easterbrook |
| The Princess of France | Beverley Chapman |
| Rosaline | Mandy Newby |
| Maria | Fiona Mozeley |
| Katherine | Sukie Chapman |
| Lady-in-Waiting | Julia Atkinson |
| Forester | Alan Lyons |
| Nathaniel | Kit Bird |
| Holofernes | Sam Valentine |
| Marcade | Alan Lyons |
| Rustics | Alex Briggs |
| Jane Collis |
Production Team
| Director | Chris Rawson |
| Stage Manager | Ali Borthwick |
| Production Manager | Lee Maloney |
| Musical Director | Paul Toy |
| Design | Chris Rawson, Ali Borthwick, Lee Maloney, Julia Atkinson |
| Costume | Jane Collis, Ali Borthwick, Bev Chapman |
| Props | Julia Atkinson, Lee Maloney |
| Lighting and Sound | Jason Drake |
| Publicity | Ali Borthwick, Chris Rawson, Jamie Searle |
| Production & Set | Lee Maloney, Kit Bird, Bev Chapman, Julia Atkinson, Jane Collis, Alex Briggs, Harold Mozeley, Claire Simpson, Matt Simpson, John Sharpe, David Hartshorne, Jamie Searle |
| Front of House | Ray Baggaley, Anne Walker, John Sharpe, Eileen Dale, Barbara Miller, Matt Simpson, Richard Stell |
| Audio and SignedPerformance Support | Ray Baggeley. Richard Stell, Jamie Searle |
| Freelance Signer | Steve Conlon |