#sumershakespeare

The men of Navarre.

A Brief Introduction:

The best laid plans . . .  sigh.

I will be the first to point out the lack of updates about this particular production, but that does not mean there was not an incredible amount of work and dedication put into rehearsals and the execution of this zippy candy-colored play. The previous post about our 2016 Bard in the Quad ended with my familiar optimistic anticipation for the rehearsal process. Those were there. Yes. There was fun, play, and many challenges. But we were also met with a variety of unexpected twists and turns that led us to a rather different production from where we started.

I will offer a brief summary and allow readers to imagine the details: an actor dropping off the face of the earth the first day of rehearsal and never reappearing (he is fine, by the way), an impossible list of scheduling conflicts, our production manager’s house being broken into, minor injuries, having to re-cast the lead three weeks into the rehearsal process, a variety of illnesses sweeping through the cast and production team, having to replace a third actor four weeks into the rehearsal process, faulty equipment, swarms of random college students shuffling like zombies through the Quad in search of Pokemon, allergic reactions, and other small issues to tackle day in and out. I found myself constantly putting out fires while in the thick of my day job which includes teaching and coordinating the hiring of a number of new faculty for next year. My days were long and emotionally taxing, but I always found rehearsals to be a source of pleasure and play.

In spite of everything we faced as a company, bad attitudes or low morale never entered the picture. This is one of the most focused and hard-working casts I have had the pleasure of directing. It didn’t matter what new issue came up - they doubled-down and tripled-down and did everything they could to stay focused on creating a strong, supportive ensemble and a funny trip through Navarre. Every weird problem or casting change ultimately led to a better production, in spite of the temporary stress.

Enough of that . . . let’s talk about the show a little.

Welcome to Navarre . . . It’s Been Waiting For You

The ladies return to the garden after a morning of hunting and other recreation.

This is the fifth Shakespeare I have directed, and while each has offered its own particular challenges, this may have been the most complicated in terms of the script. While this is a good play with elements of “great,” there is a reason it’s not ranked as one of “Shakespeare’s greatest comedies.” Likely written in 1594, it pre-dates Midsummer, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night. It’s interesting to trace Shakespeare’s development as a writer when viewing his earlier comedies up against his more sophisticated pieces. Love’s Labour’s Lost is one of Shakespeare’s wittiest comedies, however, it lacks the deft interweaving of plot and character development in his more mature pieces.

Shakespeare frequently borrows plots and character types from history, mythology, and other literary works. He also tends to build upon himself and often recycles and revisits his own devices such as shipwrecks, plays-within-plays, girls dressed as boys, sparring would-be couples, and the exploration of courtship in general. Love’s Labour’s Lost uses several of these familiar tropes that become some of his most memorable characters or situations in other plays. At the end of Love’s Labour’s Lost, for example, a group of rustics, led by a pedant and a flamboyant Spaniard, stage a poorly received pageant for the nobles. A year later, in Midsummer, a group of workmen led by an amateur writer and flamboyant cloth-weaver, stage a comically bad rendition of a Roman myth. Both devices are played for laughs and occur very near the end of the production, having little impact on the rest of the plot.

Don Armado takes the stage as Hector.

Love’s Labour’s Lost features a witty would-be couple that initially resists each other before falling in love. The pairing of Rosaline and Biron seem like a prototype for the classic romantic duo Beatrice and Benedict. Rosaline and Biron, like Benedict and Beatrice, are both slightly older than their companions. They have never married and seem generally uninterested in the idea. While individually Rosaline and Biron are clever and complicated, their relationship lacks the carefully cultivated sophistication of Benedict and Beatrice. For example, after Benedict and Beatrice finally admit their feelings for each other, Beatrice asks Benedict to make an impossible choice to “kill Claudio” in order to stand up for the honor of Hero. In the last moments of Love’s Labour’s Lost, the playful exploration of courtship is cut short when the Princess receives news that her father has died. She now must enter a state of mourning, and her ladies would be expected to follow suit. Even apart from the socially-mandated mourning period, each woman has reason to “test” the devotion of her would-be lover as throughout the play each suitor has demonstrated his inability to keep an oath. For Rosaline’s part, she asks that the clever, but often insensitive Biron, spend a year cheering up the infirm in a hospital. This year of benevolence would prove his worth to her.

Rosaline and Biron say “farewell.”

I found, unsurprisingly, that these frequently visited elements were fairly easy and satisfying to stage. The “Worthies” scene at the end of the play is one of the production’s funniest - action-oriented and just, plain silly. Of course the quick verbal-sparring between characters works. That’s why Shakespeare has some many variations of that relationship in his work.

There were essentially three major script challenges to this piece. First, the heavy reliance on Latin jokes. Second, the lack of high-stakes conflict. Third, several structural issues.

This first issue was a relatively easy one to solve. While in Shakespeare’s world, Latin would have been part of any grammar school education, even my most pretentious doctorate-holding friends have never had Latin. For the jokes to work, an audience would have to understand Latin well enough to know that the characters are mispronouncing and misusing it. The solution was simple, most of the Latin jokes had to go. In fact, I cut this script quite mercilessly for time and content. This production should feel breezy, focused, and fun in order to fit into the context of a casual outdoor summer theatre. Fare thee well, Latin!

The second issue was harder to overcome. Love’s Labour’s Lost is a fairly low-stakes comedy. There isn’t a clear villain character and there are no real life-or-death situations. Instead, this is a play about playing rather inconsequential games. Eventually conflict develops, but not until almost half way through the show. There are a few points, early on where it seems as if Shakespeare is building in some conflict. Ferdinand’s initial impulse to establish male-only cloistered academy of learning is to find a way to create a legacy for himself. Navarre is experiencing a time of great peace and since the men in his kingdom cannot gain glory through battle, he must find alternative means.

Biron relents and signs a oath he has no intention of keeping.

The first scene sets up a fairly weak conflict, that is immediately challenged from multiple angles. For all the talk of “eternal shame” associated with breaking the oath, there is very little consequence. Perhaps that’s part of the joke. But it doesn’t readily make for the most compelling theatre. Within the first scene of the play, Ferdinand establishes the rules, his best friend challenges the “rules” but eventually decides to “play along,” the votaries realize they can’t keep really keep the oath to completely shun women as the Princess is on her way to court, and then a very low-status rustic breaks the rules. Costard’s sentence of fasting and imprisonment is immediately softened even after he admits to his apparent “crime” of being “taken with the maid.”

The stakes in the show only become more compelling towards the end of Act IV when Ferdinand and his companions all discover that each other man is “in love” with on of the ladies. Ferdinand, Dumain, and Longaville look to Biron to use his cleverness to talk their way out of this oath so that they are free to woo the ladies of France. He does.

Unlike the Latin jokes, the play’s relatively low-stakes are harder to overcome. Part of making this work relies on the actors’ performances. I frequently reminded them in rehearsal, that although the “problems” the characters experience might seem trivial to us, they must matter a great deal within the context of the world of the play. I have encouraged them to find what matters most at each moment for the characters and to always be asking the question: What I am fighting for?

Don Armado and Mote in the King’s garden.

The actors have met this challenge with energy and focus. Shakespeare does offer many details to explore and interpret, but sometimes we need to invent conflict as well.

The third issue, structural challenges, is very much related to the lack of conflict. Act V scene 2 is the longest scene in Shakespeare’s canon and it’s really the point in Love’s Labour’s Lost where things start to happen. This is where the men and women finally meet at the playing field. The men, inexplicably disguised as Russians, attempt to woo the ladies by the favors they had sent earlier in the play. The women get wind of their plan to don disguises and so decide to mask themselves and switch favors in order to trick the men. This is the sort of “plan” that would only be believable in a Shakespearean comedy.

Finally, about two thirds of the way through the play, the apparent conflict begins to pay off. It’s rewarding for the audience at this point as this is where in the show we’ve been getting our biggest laughs. But then comes the other strange issue of the inherently “unsatisfying” ending of the play. Unlike other Bard comedies, Love’s Labour’s Lost does not end in a mass wedding scene suggesting hope and “happily ever after.” They play, instead, does exactly what the title suggests it will. For all the games, scheming, and broken oaths, fate intervenes with the sudden death of the Princess’s father. The Princess and her ladies must immediately return to France and spend the next year mourning. Ferdinand pleas with her: “Now, at the latest minute of the hour. Grant us your loves.”

Ferdinand moves to comfort the Princess.

She cannot and will not grant him his request. Apart from the socially-mandated mourning period, she explains, “your grace is perjured much.” He and his votaries have not demonstrated the ability to keep an oath. They are all unworthy of the women they have attempted to woo. Each lady separately requests a year’s time for her suitor to prove his love. Each suitor agrees to his conditions and Ferdinand and Biron provide this exchange:

BIRON: Our wooing doth not end like an old play: Jack hath not Jill: these ladies’ courtesy Might well have made our sport a comedy.

FERDINAND: Come, sir, it wants twelvemonth and a day, And then ‘twill end.

BIRON: That’s too long for a play.

The play becomes very meta here and Shakespeare directly speaks to audience expectations as if to say . . . “You’re not getting a happy ending.”

While I’m definitely not a purist and have no problem with editing thing I don’t believe would play well with a contemporary audience, I also don’t believe in “fixing” Shakespeare. Let things be ugly. Let them be messy if needs be. My husband rather likes the deliberately unsatisfying ending because it’s more true to real life. I agree. Not everything has to work out at the end. But even so, I do feel a need to tie up at least a couple of loose strands in a way that makes sense within the context we’ve created.

To wit to woo!

It is revealed in the last scene, by Costard, that the lust country maid is pregnant. Costard claims publicly that the child belongs to Don Armado. As a side note, this may or may not be true. It’s perfectly reasonable that assume that the child is actually Costard’s and he is attempting to get himself out of having to take responsibility. Either way, marrying off Don Armado with Jaquenetta to the tune of the “Owl and the Cuckoo” seems like a fitting way to leave Navarre. The ending is a bit melancholy as the pastel-clad ladies of France dance once with their respective suitors before bidding them a final farewell.