Love's Labour's Lost
Evert B Person Theatre
October 24, 2024,
7:30 pm
– 10:00 pm
October 25, 2024,
7:30 pm
– 10:00 pm
October 26, 2024,
7:30 pm
– 10:00 pm
October 27, 2024,
2:00 pm
– 4:00 pm
Directed by Danielle Cain
Love’s Labour’s Lost is a quirky collage of courtship, with eccentric characters, love letters, mistaken identity, and linguistic one-upmanship. The whole play takes place outside in nature, with royals and commoners romping about the King’s park. It’s youthful and silly and fun.
It’s not surprising that LOVE is central to LLL. The entire plot of the play revolves around the characters’ attempts at courtship. Characters swear off love, talk endlessly about it, admit their powerlessness before it, and devote themselves entirely to its pursuit.
Full of quick dialogue and wordplay, LLL also asks the question How does language help and hinder human connection?
To provide context and add weight to the narrative, our production is set in 1919, post WWI.
The four young noblemen show evidence of injuries and shell-shock.
Their reason for taking the Oath is to take back control of their lives.
The women’s strong response to the absurdity of the Oath comes out of four years of taking more responsibility, with the men at war.
For four years the men have been communicating to loved ones via letters, rather than face to face, helping to explain their awkwardness.
The class system was crumbling post war, with all classes having served together, so the boldness of the working class characters is not out of the question.