Thursday, July 4, 2013

Love's Labour's Lost

Love's Labour's Lost is not an exciting play. Given that fact, I found the BBC Shakespeare's version to be reasonably enjoyable. If the staging was at times a bit static, Elijah Moshinsky seems to have mastered directing for the camera during his tenure with the series. He's come miles since All's Well That Ends Well.

Interestingly, I found the Berowne of Mike Gwilym and the Rosaline of Jenny Agutter to be more compelling than the King of Jonathan Kent and the Princess of Maureen Lipman. Gwilym was a late arrival to the series, but has acquitted himself nobly in all three of his roles. Paul Jesson was an amusing Costard, finishing his string of performances in eight of the series' entries. John Wells was hilariously affected as Holofernes.

Perhaps my favorite scene was Boyet reading aloud the letter from Don Armado to Jaquenetta. The Princess and her three ladies managed to sustain rolling gales of laughter throughout the letter, and this was quite delightful to watch. But overall, I felt the play needed stronger stakes to have greater impact.

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