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Transmorphed into a romp in the Caribbean, the play effortlessly wins over the audience, writes GORDON PARSONS
ZANY: Jack Pardoe as Spanish Don Armado [Johan Persson]

Love’s Labour’s Lost
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Stratford-upon-Avon

 

“A PERFORMANCE of Love’s Labour’s Lost is a sort of entertainment to be valued rather for Shakespeare’s sake than for its own.” So suggested George Bernard Shaw — no great fan of the Bard. Director Emily Burns seems to have taken this advice to heart.

One mustn’t be too critical. At the expense of being accused of cultural heresy, I am inclined to believe that it is expecting too much of modern audiences, attuned to digital messaging languages, to engage with what is one of Shakespear’s most complex linguistic plays.

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