Love's Labour's Lost Part 1 - Moshinsky

I found two versions of Love’s Labour’s Lost were available to me. This post is about the 1985 BBC/Time Life production directed by Elijah Moshinsky.

The play is one of Shakespeare’s Stupid Comedies. The Idiotic King of Navarre decides to take three years off from being king (I guess Navarre pretty much runs itself) to study with three of his friends. In order to concentrate on their studies, they will eat very little, sleep very little, and stay away from women. Somehow this moron has forgotten that a Princess is due to arrive on an official visit, and that she is a woman. The four friends immediately have to break their agreement, meet the princess and her ladies, and fall madly in love. Idiotic comedy ensues, and we’re supposed to pretend it makes sense.

The BBC/Time Life production is set in the 1700s, so there are lots of wigs and lots of powder. The silly costumes work very well with the stupidity of the play.

The shining light of this production is David Warner, best known as the Cardassian who tortured Jean-Luc Picard in season 6 of Star Trek: The Next Generation (http://youtu.be/o_eSwq1ewsU). He is absolutely brilliant as Don Adriano, and plays the love-sick Spanish knight-errant with such realism that he seems to be in a different play. Don Adriano is pretty much the same character as Sir Eglamore from The Two Gentlemen of Verona, so it may be that the Lord Chamberlain’s Men had an actor who was really good in that kind of role (or the audiences were shouting for more Sir Eglamore).

The play breaks down into two ensembles: The Nobles Ensemble, and the far more compelling Villagers Ensemble, comprising Costard, Moth, Dull, Holophrenes, the Curate, Don Adriano de Armado, and Jaquenetta. Holophrenes must be Shakespeare’s parody of every self-important school master he’d ever known. The audience soon learns to cringe when he appears.

In the Pageant of the Nine Worthies scene, the Villagers put on a show for the Nobles. This scene is crucial to the play.  Shakespeare directly compares the two ensembles and all but asks the audience to judge between the two: The Country Bumpkins present noble archetypes from history to the educated nobility, who heckle them mercilessly. The Nobles show poor manners, and the Villagers stand for their own dignity and honor. 

Shakespeare could have written out at least one, but better two each of the King’s men and the Princess’ ladies. If you have Longueville, you’ve pretty much got the same character as Dumaine, and if you have Maria, you’ve pretty much got Katherine. In my opinion, you’re better off without any of them.

Oh, and you’ll recognize Valentine Dyall, who has the walk-on role of Mercade. He played the Black Guardian on Doctor Who back in the 1980s (http://youtu.be/40FQXpJlFiY). He had an amazing voice.