Stage Door News
Stage Door News
July 30, 2015… Tony and Olivier Award-winning director John Caird, the force behind such hits as Nicholas Nickleby and Les Misérables, makes his Stratford debut at the helm of Shakespeare’s vivacious comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost. Previews begin today at the Festival Theatre.
One of Shakespeare’s early comedies, the play revolves around a decision by the young King Ferdinand of Navarre and his friends to renounce the company of women in order to spend the next three years devoted to contemplative study. So when the Princess of France arrives, she and her three ladies are forced by the King’s edict to make camp outdoors. However, because the women are on a diplomatic mission, the King and his men agree to meet them – and immediately fall in love. In the ensuing flurry of mix-ups and masquerades, it becomes clear that not all of life’s lessons can be learned from books.
The production features Ruby Joy as the Princess of France and Mike Shara as Berowne, with Sarah Afful as Rosaline, Juan Chioran as Don Adriano de Armado, Josue Laboucane as Costard, Tom Rooney as Holofernes and Sanjay Talwar as King Ferdinand of Navarre.
Artistic credits include Designer Patrick Clark, Lighting Designer Michael Walton, Composer Josh Schmidt and Sound Designer Peter McBoyle.
“Love’s Labour’s Lost is a play I’ve always loved enormously but have never done,” says Mr. Caird. “It’s a wonderful synthesis of everything Shakespeare had been thinking about up until that point in his life, including memories of his own schooldays and characters from his Warwickshire childhood. He writes these characters with such fondness that when you read or watch this play you feel you are getting very close to him.
“As far as we know, Love’s Labour’s Lost sprang entirely from Shakespeare’s own imagination. Like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest, it’s not adapted from any existing source. Because they’re freely invented, unconstrained by another writer’s material, those sourceless plays perhaps bring us closest to Shakespeare himself: a brilliant intellect, witty and learned; a great poet; a man of deep human understanding; a sympathetic, tender, loving artist – and very obviously a man of the theatre.”
“Love’s Labour’s Lost offers a lighthearted take on this season’s theme of Discovery,” says Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino. “Our playbill is full of characters whose lives are changed by a moment of profound insight. In this most beautiful of Shakespeare’s plays, that moment comes when the four lords realize they’ve all inadvertently broken their pact for a chance at love, leading to Berowne’s unforgettable speech: ‘Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves, / Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths.’ In the hands of John Caird, who I am thrilled to finally welcome to the Festival, this production is pure joy. The whole ensemble triumphs by brilliantly combining heart, comedy and blissful entertainment.”
Though Mr. Caird is a Canadian, his illustrious career has taken place almost entirely outside of this country. As a director and writer, he has worked in theatre, opera and musical theatre with such esteemed actors as Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ian McKellen and Ben Kingsley. His hit production of Nicholas Nickleby, co-directed with Trevor Nunn in 1980 at the Royal Shakespeare Company, set a record for the most Olivier Awards won by a show. He and Mr. Nunn also co-directed the original production of the international sensation Les Misérables. His recent credits include Hjalmar Söderberg’s Gertrud at the Royal Dramatic Theatre; Puccini’s La Bohème at both the San Francisco Opera and Canadian Opera Company in Toronto; and Daddy Long Legs, which opens this fall at the Davenport Theatre Off-Broadway.
Love’s Labour’s Lost is sponsored by Scotiabank.
Production support is generously provided by Larry & Sally Rayner.
Support for the 2015 season of the Festival Theatre is generously provided by Claire & Daniel Bernstein.
The production is dedicated to the memory of former company member Bernard Hopkins.
Love’s Labour’s Lost Forum Highlights
The Stratford Festival Forum is a series of activities and events, including fascinating talks, interactive presentations, concerts, comedy shows and performances, that offer theatregoers a unique opportunity to delve further into the ideas and issues raised by the 2015 playbill and its theme of Discovery: That Eureka Moment.
Themes related to Love’s Labour’s Lost will be explored through several Forum events, including:
Talking Theatre
The Art of Loving Well
Thursday, August 6, 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.
Tom Patterson Theatre
Pericles is rescued from despair through the redemptive power of his daughter’s love. In Carousel, Billy is redeemed by finally recognizing “how he loved” Julie so that he can reach out to his daughter to ease her suffering. The young men in Love’s Labour’s Lost cannot win the ladies they love until they perform their trials of service to others to prove their love. What is it that we have to undergo to learn the art of loving well?
Ideas at Stratford: The Massey Lectures Forum
The Discovery of the Empty Space
Sunday, August 9, 10 to 11:30 a.m.
Studio Theatre
When a director approaches a bare stage with a play, it’s with two questions in mind: What is the story? And how can my team of actors and other artists tell this story through their bodies, these words, and the toolkit of imagination? How are we to fill this empty space? The directors of this season’s Shakespeare productions, Chris Abraham, John Caird, Antoni Cimolino and Scott Wentworth, explore the challenges of directing with Ideas host Paul Kennedy.
Love’s Masterpiece
Wednesday, August 19, 10:45 a.m. to noon
Studio Theatre
Writer and poet Kate Cayley and Paul Edmondson, Head of Research and Knowledge at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, examine the poetry of Love’s Labour’s Lost as evidence of Shakespeare’s masterpiece – the work through which he proves his mettle as a poet.
Sustaining support for the Forum is generously provided by Kelly & Michael Meighen and the T.R. Meighen Family Foundation.
Support for the 2015 season of the Forum is provided in memory of Dr. W. Philip Hayman.
Stratford Direct, the daily return private bus service, now offers two routes: Toronto to Stratford and Detroit to Stratford. The Toronto bus costs $20 round trip, departing twice daily from May 4 to September 19. The Detroit bus costs $40 round trip, departing once daily from May 26 to September 19. Both routes are available on performance days with some exceptions.
Stratford Direct is generously sponsored by the Peter Cundill Foundation.
The 2015 season, which runs until November 1, features Hamlet, The Sound of Music, Carousel, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Taming of the Shrew, She Stoops to Conquer, The Physicists, The Alchemist, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Oedipus Rex, Possible Worlds, The Last Wife and The Adventures of Pericles. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit stratfordfestival.ca or call 1.800.567.1600.
Photo: Mike Shara as Berowne. ©2014 Don Dixon.
2015-07-30
Stratford: Shakespeare's comedy "Love's Labour's Lost" begins previews