Feb 22 2003
Posted by admin under Love's Labour's Lost
221 Love’s Labour’s Lost ★★★
Director: Trevor Nunn
Title Role: Joseph Fiennes
Revenue: National Theatre
Seat:
Price :£20.00
My rate: ***
Director: Trevor Nunn
Designer: John Gunter
Lighting Designer: David Hersey
Music: Steven Edis
Movement Director: David Bolger
Sound Designer: Paul Groothuis
Music Director/keyboard/accordion: Mark Bousie
French Horn: Robert Evans
Percussion/harmonica: Philip Hopkins
Violin/keyboard: Jeff Moore
Dumaine : John Barrowman
Lord 1 : Christopher Bennett
Marcade, a Messenger : Anthony Cable
Company : Yao Chin
A Forrester : Daniel Crossley
Child : Lewis Crutch
King Ferdinand of Navarre : Simon Day
Lord 2 : Tom Espiner
Berowne : Joseph Fiennes
Rosaline : Kate Fleetwood
Maria/Katherine : Jane Fowler
Company : Jye Frasca
Company : Charlotte Gorton
Nathaniel, a curate : Paul Grunert
Child : Freddie Hale
Costard, a swain : Richard Henders
Moth, a page : Akiya Henry
Company : Shaun Henson
Don Adriano de Armado : Martin Marquez
Jaquenetta : Annette McLaughlin
Company : Duncan MacVicar
Company : Jane Mark
Child : Thomas Moll
Longaville : Tam Mutu
Child : Toby Parkes
Child : David Perkins
Company : Corey Skaggs
Company : Nicola Sloane
Dull, a Constable : Duncan Smith
Holofernes, a schoolmaster : Robin Soans
Company : Rachel Stanley
Katherine/Maria : Mary Stockley
Boyet, a French Lord : Philip Voss
Company : Claire Winsper
Company : Lee William-Davis
The Princess of France : Olivia Williams
Company : Nikki Worrall
Brittany Luck’s review
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Trevor Nunn’s direction of Shakepeare’s early play Love’s Labour’s Lost enhances a delightful production about the games of love and wit by casting it into sharp relief with its own dark shadings.
Nunn sets the play in the England of World War I, which gives him the ability to display both the pastoral world of old England and to add a war frame that reminds us Shakespeare’s play is as much about loss as it is about love.
With capable performances by all of the cast, including Joseph Fiennes, Kate Fleetwood and Simon Day, none of the original wit is missed. Yet, Shakespeare’s commentary on the transience of life might have been overlooked without Nunn’s insightful direction. Just as Shakespeare re-interprets the traditional lighthearted romantic comedy by preventing the lovers from gaining their objects, Nunn twists the play again with his frame, challenging us to enjoy fleeting pleasures before troubles come.