#berowne

this is something you can kind of tell more in the official photos of this production rather than the recording but the tree is so fucking good. the colorful shapes on the trees just scratches my brain in all the right ways. whoever designed that tree you have my love and my life

i'm not sure how common the "have an actor in character doing something on stage before the show begins" thing is in rsc productions but every time i've seen it it's so much fun. in the twelfth night production i watched feste is up on a ladder layering paint on the walls and here we have berowne, longaville, and dumaine having a little picnic! (berowne is having a nap and is covering his face with his straw hat)

ferdinand YANKED that pillow from berowne. let my man LIVE ferdinand

berowne successfully threw the hat onto the tree branch <33 good for him <33

also: his hat feels so out of place when he actually wears it. it feels like it's an anachronism even though i'm sure straw hats existed in the 16th-17th centuries

haha yeah shakespeare wrote a bunch of characters 400 years ago for dt to play but he is actually Such a good fit for berowne... he has such a natural talent for comedic timing and berowne's whole thing is that he's quick-witted and smart but makes a joke out of everything and can't take things seriously. also i was somewhat expecting him to be way more self-indulgent and overdramatic (a little bit like his romeo) bc that's somewhat how berowne came across in my head when reading LLL but i think dt's berowne is like. more of a lovable flirtatious dork. charming and romantic and more sincere than he thinks. it helps sell a more genuine connection between him and rosaline, for one!

i do think tho compared to dt's benedick his berowne is more serious and grounded and less of a silly clown man. if him and nina had went on to do ""love's labour's won"" (much ado about nothing) together it def would've been VERY different from the dt/ct version

i love this ferdinand so much. there's this kind of straightforwardness and evenness to how edward bennett says his lines like you can REALLY buy that this man would be insane enough to get his three friends to swear to be cooped up with him for 3 years without the touch of a woman and only having 1 meal a day 6 days a week etc

whoever decided to make moth's whole vibe "armado but small and endlessly sassy" your mind is so huge. they're like a "don't talk to me or my son ever again" deal

the portrayal of armado is biblically accurate. which is to say. this man is down horrendously bad and is so annoying and dramatic about it. applause

nina's rosaline is EXACTLY what i had pictured her sounding when i first read the play. i cannot describe it in words other than "she is so perfect for this role and i'm insane"

the ladies all gasp when boyet tells them that ferdinand is gonna make them stay outside on the grass LMAO

sorry for this commentary being text only but i must point out the cunty little cape that berowne is wearing in this scene. ok thank you

i WISHHHHH i could see berowne and rosaline's expressions when they're having their back-and-forths cuz based off of the line delivery and the pixels i think berowne is grinning like a lovesick lunatic at her and i Need it. I Need To See It. Give It To Me

armado dramatically playing the guitar vs moth unenthusiastically shaking a maraca. Yeah

completely my hypothesis also but i think the part where berowne talks about rosaline to costard is where This DT Image comes from. like the way his head is totally in the clouds just saying her name

[berowne voice] The Boy (derogatory)

several things that dt does during the german clock soliloquy that are so much fun. a) when he says "lord of folded arms" he points to someone in the audience with their arms crossed, b) when he says "king of codpieces" he sort of leans over to look Downwards at (presumably) a man in the audience, and c) when he picks out a woman in the audience to compare to the german clock, he makes a big show of winking at her afterwards. i may be screaming. berowne disaster bisexual!

i realize now that a) i have completely forgotten what the hell holofernes' latin phrases mean and b) the regular person in the audience does not know what holofernes' latin phrases mean either. but that's fine because oliver ford davies delivers these lines like something you'd say "okay grandpa let's get you to bed" to

sick and twisted about the bit where everybody reads out berowne's letter to rosaline aloud because IIIIII think what he wrote was very nice, sweet even, but holofernes is like "what is this fucking garbage smh my head"

hard to tell through the recording but i think berowne straight up chucks his draft of a letter at the beginning of 4.3 into the audience when he sees ferdinand coming

WET BEAST EDWARD BENNETT. HE SHOULD PLAY WET BEASTS FOREVER.

also ferdinand pauses in the middle of crying to take out his love letter again bc he forgot the next line he wrote. Amazing

the chemistry between the four guys is incredible. the most "me and the boys" energy of all time. especially when they sing together

"I, THAT AM HONEST" SUREEEEEE BEROWNE. SUREEEEEEEEEEEE

Chomp

and i mean of course david tennant's berowne would try to eat his love letter to destroy the evidence. i hope this makes sense to anyone who is a big fan of david tennant

i have no clue how the other lords are able to make out his handwriting though. i feel like he kinda did a pretty good job of destroying it

the way david delivers the "your mistresses dare never come in rain / for fear their colors should be washed away" line is so good. A+ no notes. also i'm mentioning this so late but i love the costuming of the production being a nod to this line what w/ berowne and rosaline being the only ones in their respective groups not wearing all white

ok so when i was reading the chapter on love's labour's lost in greg doran's book he mentions having discussions about how they would address the other lords' racism towards rosaline, how much would they keep in, how they would frame it, etc. but he never actually elaborates on what approach they actually took so i was curious to see how they did it. and the best way i can describe it is they attempt to keep in tone with the scene being mostly goofy funny but they keep those lines and have berowne fight back against his friends (longaville and dumaine especially). like for example longaville holds up his foot when he compares rosaline's face to his shoe and berowne grabs him by the leg and drags him around when saying (essentially) that rosaline is too good for him, and the audience laughs at longaville (also bc he looks ridiculous hopping around on one foot). i feel like the execution of it is inherently flawed in that it somewhat reads more as "berowne's friends messing with/getting back at him for lying" more than "berowne's friends are terrible people for saying this" (and that's partially just by virtue of how the scene was written, ig at some point it's impossible to reconcile this w/ the emotional beats and tone of the play). but it is keeping with the characterizations and it's made pretty clear who's in the wrong (dumaine/longaville are basically made into the butt of the joke, and letting berowne retaliate and take control of the argument plays a key role in that). however this is why i'd like to see more productions where rosaline is a black/brown woman, i feel like there are more possible interpretations of this bit that can potentially strike a better balance between sensitivity and tone

(tangentially related: in the most recent production of love's labour's lost by the rsc they set it in the modern day and cast an east asian woman as rosaline and, like, as an east asian person i feel like even though she's a woc that's still inaccurate casting. bc dark hair and eye color aren't traits that ppl look down on us for having, meanwhile rosaline's features are subject to ridicule by multiple characters in the play. also there are plenty of lines alluding to rosaline specifically having a darker skin color ("red paints itself black to imitate her brow" "to look like her are chimney sweepers black" "ethiopes of their sweet complexion crack" etc) and i find it weird that no one cottoned onto that, in 2024?)

this production cuts berowne's "she is born to make black fair" line but they keep in "her favor turns the fashion of the days"; i like the tact in that, like it's giving less of the vibe that berowne thinks rosaline is the first woc to ever be pretty and more "he thinks she's so beautiful she'll change all of society's standards"

yes they cut to intermission on david saying "allons! allons!" while they all run off the stage. haha very funny

there's a moment where holofernes thinks for one hot second that armado is making a pass at him and i can tell from this blurry pixelly recording that holofernes looks like he almost has a stroke at this. like the way that he staggers back and tries to process it. okay grandpa gay people are real but armado is very very cishet don't worry let's get you back to bed

text-wise at the beginning of 5.2 katherine and rosaline have a back-and-forth with a lot of wordplay about "light" and "dark" that plays off of their contrasting appearances (katherine is described as having rosy skin and blonde hair). in this production though they cut a few of katherine's meaner lines in that exchange (she's also played by an actress of color so they cut the lines talking abt her appearance) and frame it as more of a friendly banter. tbh understandable given that showing a camaraderie and friendship between the ladies really helps the humor in the later parts of 5.2

the .........the russian disguises 😭 omfghfgdfdsfhfwfwmfwmfwfdw

also is it bad that i think their russian outfits are so much nicer looking than their normal outfits. minus the comically ridiculous fake beards and eyebrows of course

also x2 i'm imagining the lords trying to practice this dance number together and my eyes start to water. whose idea was this.

BEROWNE WHY DID YOU KICK THAT POOR CHILD OUT OF THE DANCE LINEUP. HE WAS DOING HIS BEST

berowne's fake russian accent is the stupidest thing ive ever heard and i love it so much. he is mangling all his vowels into something vaguely russian sounding but you can hear the scottish fighting to be free and the end result is something you can barely understand. it's so glorious. what the fuck is he saying. also imagine trying to rizz your girl up in the worst most stupid fake accent known to man. you deserve to be single forever. sorry

the boyet hater monologue is so DELIGHTFULLY bitchy. chef's kiss (also this monologue is probably one of my personal favorite shakespeare passages to read to myself. it's just so funny)

the nine worthies bit is very funny but this is another case where i wish the quality of the recording was better because in one of the entries on this blog (by that crazy person that went to see hamlet 27 times and LLL 14 times) they mention how fun it is to watch berowne's expressions/reactions ;___; oh well. i will just have to imagine them in my mind