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Love’s Labour’s Lost review – cheeky laughs and delicate chemistry

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London
Physical gags, interactive moments and a fairytale flourish combine in this revival of Shakespeare’s early comedy

When does a desire to be funny start to feel a bit fussy? Director Nick Bagnall has carefully mined Shakespeare’s early comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost for laughs. There are bawdy love scenes, physical gags aplenty and expansive performances from a chamber cast of eight. Some of the embellishments work well but it’s also a little, well, laboured.

Katie Sykes’s costume design is period dress with a fairytale flourish: soft hues, velvety suits, shiny crowns. The show starts with the Princess of France sat beside a toy music box and also features hobby horses and heart-shaped balloons. When the King of Navarre and his pals swear off women for three years, and decide to devote themselves to study, they look like school children messing around during lunch break.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2N1ck3L
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