Kevin Hosier - Director
Adrian Lillie - Designer
Georgina King - Assistant Designer
Lisa Westerhout - Music
Mark Carlisle - Don Armado/Longaville
Sarah Goddard - Katherine/Holofernes
Dafydd Gwyn Howells - Boyet/Dull
William Kempsell - Costard
Steve Knightly - Dumaine/Nathaniel/Forester/Macarde
Oliver Langdon - Berowne
Kate Penning - Maria/Moth
Philippe Spall - King of Navarre
Charlotte Windmill - Princess
Claire Wyatt - Rosaline/Jaquenetta
The Oxford Shakespeare Company have opened their third open air season in fine comic style with a sparkling production of Love's Labour's Lost in the gardens of Wadham College. Justin Beplate, Oxford Daily Info
While director Kevin Hosier has given the play a distinctly modern feel, there is nothing forced about this temporal displacement; the words come naturally in uniformly excellent performances by the whole cast, and the comic possibilities of the play are only enhanced. One of Shakespeare's earlier comedies, Love's Labour's Lost is conspicuous for its lack of plot. Yet this is probably the key to its appeal for modern audiences, who respond readily to Shakespeare's dazzling word play and what his punning speech has to say about the tenuous links between well-wrought rhymes and sound reasons. The plot, such as it is, can be summed up simply.
The King of Navarre (memorably played by Philippe Spall) persuades three of his lords to swear off carnal pleasures for three years for the sake of their scholarly pursuits. An oath is solemnly sworn, after some initial misgivings from the roguish young Berowne (Oliver Langdon), only to be compromised in the next Act by the arrival at Court of the Princess of France (Charlotte Windmill) with three handsome ladies in train. The men quickly forget their oaths and so the fun begins. There are many memorable performances in this production, though special mention must go to the comic spectacle of Mark Carlisle's overblown Don Armado, and Sarah Goddard's whacky rendition of the blue-rinsed pedant Holofernes (the mixture of Holofernes' Latin grammar and the Don's Latin love antics is a heady one). Charlotte Windmill plays a superbly supercilious Princess who, unimpressed by the oath binding the men, deflates the King's pompous talk with her sharp tongue and mordant wit.
This really is an inspired choice of play for the outdoor environs of Wadham College gardens, particularly if you can pick the kind of cool, clear evening that graced the opening night. Make time to go and see this production. After all, what better way to spend a summer evening than laughing in the company of talented actors and an appreciative audience?
“Marcardé’s entrance should be a long entrance, with all eyes turning towards it. In
Wadham Gardens the June night was falling and the projectors were beginning to light up
the greensward and to catch the wrinkled bark of the trees. Emlyn Williams was playing Dull
and Veronica Turleigh was the Rosaline. Then, all of a sudden, out of the deep and very
distant shadows a magnifi cent fi gure in black came striding. There was a great sweeping
bow…Gyles Isham knew how to bow…” Kevin Hosier - Oxford 2004
It was always likely that this play had been performed in this garden before –
probably many times - but I had never considered this possibility until I happened
upon this passage. That the reviewer chose to remark on this briefest of scenes in
the play intrigued me. The names of the actors intrigued me. I wondered whether
there was a possibility that any of them may still be alive or whether their children,
grandchildren - or even great-grandchildren - might one night be amongst our
audience. I was moved by the idea that exactly eighty years ago, Veronica, Emlyn
and Gyles were standing in this very garden, confronting the same complexities of
text and character as the actors who will interpret these roles for you this evening.
One cannot help but feel a sense of kindred with Veronica and the other stalwarts
of the 1924 OUDS. We have simply boarded the train further along the line
– trying to breathe our life and our passion into this wonderful play as it journeys
through the ages. As we stand here in 2004, speaking the same words, marvelling
at the delicate beauty of the language - as they too must have done - how can we
not feel a connection both to them and to all who have spoken the words before,
stretching back through the centuries like the infi nite refl ections in a fairground
hall of mirrors. And what a marvellous coincidence that in our production we too
have a Welshman playing the part of Dull.
Every journey, of course, has a beginning. Shakespeare wrote Love’s Labour’s Lost
in 1594 or thereabouts, making it one of his earliest comedies. Would it surprise
him that it is still being performed 410 years later? Would he be amused by the
esteem in which his work is held today, or did he have a sense even then that he
was creating something which would immortalise him? Whatever his thoughts
at the outset, we can only hope that we have played a part, however small, in
ensuring that this particular journey has no end.
So as you settle down to enjoy the show this evening, please welcome the spirits of
Emlyn Williams, Veronica Turleigh and Gyles Isham, who knew how to bow. The
actors you see before you tonight, speaking the lines they both spoke - in the very
place they spoke them - are your direct connection to them, to generations of
actors before them and ultimately to the mind of the man who has blessed us with
these extraordinary gifts.
