LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST
1st July - 7th October, 2007
SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE, LONDON

25th - 27th October, 2007
NATIONAL THEATRE OF KOREA, SEOUL

David Oakes in Love's Labour's Lost at Shakespeare's Globe

Director Dominic Dromgoole
Designer Jonathan Fensom
Composer Claire van Kampen

'Dominic Dromgoole's zestful production succeeds in captivating the audience... Jonathan Fensom's design is a delight... It's a treat to see just how much of the comedy communicates itself to the loudly appreciative audience' The Independent

* * * * 'Shakespeare’s largely neglected and arguably most ludicrous comedy gets a feisty outing from the Globe’s artistic director Dominic Dromgoole' Time Out

'Mixes bare-faced cheek with bare-cheeked bottoms... As Rosaline, Gemma Arteton is a real find: a Shakespearian star in the making' The Guardian

'With a delightful design, jaunty musical interludes and an engaging and attractive cast, it has abundant charm... As Moth, Seroca Davis is entirely enchanting - as is enough here besides to make this tricky work unusally diverting' The Times

'The play gleefully uses farce to puncture pretension. The scene in which the men try to hide from each other is perfect Globe theatre' Metro

Self-denial is in fashion at the court of Navarre where the young King and three of his courtiers solemnly forswear all pleasures in favour of serious study. But the Princess of France and her all-too-lovely entourage have other ideas and it isn’t long before young love, with its glad eyes, hesitations and embarrassments, has broken every self-imposed rule of the all-male ‘academe’.

Shakespeare’s boisterous send-up of all those who try to turn their back on life, is a festive parade of every weapon in the youthful playwright’s comic arsenal: from excruciating cross-purposes and impersonations, to drunkenness, bust-ups and pratfalls. Even more, it is a joyful banquet of language, groaning with puns, rhymes, bizarre syntax, grotesque coinages and parodies. This heady combination enjoys its first outing at the Globe this season.

Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe, directed Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra for the Globe’s 2006 theatre season. Jonathan Fensom’s recent theatre work includes Journey’s End (West End and Broadway), Talking to Terrorists (Royal Court and tour) and Smaller (West End).

This production will employ Renaissance staging, costume and music.

David Oakes in Love's Labour's Lost by John Haynes

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