You’d
think that a play that’s all about love would be fairly simple. But when it
comes to Shakespeare, nothing is as simple as you might think, or might want.
In
this Great Lakes Theater production of Love’s
Labour’s Lost, a play filled with heightened language and topical
references, it’s pretty easy for many details of the story to get lost. To
remedy that, director Tyne Rafaeli has turned the whole thing into a fairly
non-stop game of Chutes and Ladders. And much of it is diverting while not
exactly serving the play’s story and theme.
Upon
entering the theater, one is confronted with a large library, the towering
shelves packed with books and sitting on a patch of Astroturf. The clever
scenic design by Kristen Robinson nicely marries the two environments and moods
of the play: the strict, by-the-book asceticism of the scholar and the freedom
of nature and human impulse.
And
it all progresses promisingly as four young men— Ferdinand, King of Navarre and
his three attendants—join in a pact to study together for three years and
decline the company of females. Of course, that oath lasts as long as it takes
the women to show up, in the person of the Princess of France and her lovely
retinue. Soon enough, the men are in full rut and eager to chuck the books
aside.
This
they do with relish, as Rafaeli has them climbing up and sliding down ladders
and the bookshelves themselves, with books shoved out and falling to the
floor—in the boys’ urgency to get close to one of the women.
Meanwhile
the clown Costard (an appealing Juan Rivera Lebron) has been arrested for
dallying with a dairy maid named Jaquenetta (an amusingly dour Maggie
Kettering), so Constable Anthony Dull puts Costard in the custody of a
loud-mouthed Spanish knight, Don Armando, who already has a secret passion for
Jaquenetta himself. Why? Because it’s funny and Shakespeare is fishing for
laughs, not a rational plot.
Obviously,
many complications ensue as the four women tease the men, who have each been captivated
by different gals in the Princess’s posse. Towards the end, surprises come fast
and furious as the men dress as Russians to court the ladies (apparently a
surefire turn-on back in the day), then the ladies disguise themselves to fool
the randy dudes, then the simple folk put on a pageant (of course!), and then
sobering news is delivered that the King of France is dead. So the Princess and
her gals decide to book, telling the guys they should abstain from worldly
pleasures for a year and then they’ll come back and leap into their arms.
In
this production, only the broad outlines of the story are clearly presented
since calisthenics take over the stage. With Rafaeli’s “Laff Factory” meets
Benny Hill style of direction, it is devilishly hard to keep track of old
Will’s somewhat tortured script.
The
actors, who no doubt will be in excellent physical shape after this run, keep
up as best they can. In the leading roles, Jonathan Dyrud as the King and Erin
Partin as the Princess affect a royal presence while revealing their hidden
lust. And Christopher Tocco and Laura Welsh Berg are entirely watchable as their
key attendants.
But
David Anthony Smith as Don Armando is never able to establish a comical chemistry
with Robyn Kerr as Moth, his page boy. And their accents accents don’t help
since they are often hard to decipher. Dougfred Miller and M.A. Taylor
contribute some chuckles as, respectively, the schoolmaster Holofernes and his
wingman Nathaniel. And in a pleasant switch, Tom Ford beautifully underplays
his role as Constable Dull and winds up being the funniest one on stage. Go
figure.
If
you like a lot of activity and some laughs, this version of LLL may feel just right. But don’t
expect to be bowled over by the story, since it’s mostly missing in action.
Love’s
Labour’s Lost
Through
April 24 at Great Lakes Theater, Hanna Theatre, 2067 E. 14th St.,
216-241-6000.
