Season Selects: Love's Labour's Lost

Choosing which plays to see in a season is always a tough decision. But we're here to help! This week, Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare, and directed by Brenda DeVita.

Love’s Labour’s Lost

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Brenda DeVita

Fast Facts

Playing: Hill Theatre | August 12 – October 2
Featuring: Sarah Day, Jamal James, Nate Burger, Jeb Burris, David Daniel, Jamal James, Samantha Newcomb, Melisa Pereyra, James Ridge, Ronald Román-Meléndez, Marcus Truschinski, Triney Sandoval & Jennifer Vosters.
Genre: Shakespeare Comedy / Period Comedy
Go If You Liked: The Comedy of Errors (2016), As You Like It (2018), Twelfth Night (2019)
Last at APT: 2002

About the Play

At some point, every young scholar stumbles across an unwelcome truth. It’s time to grow up, the wise people say. To pack away youthful folly; forget about endless evenings spent out-clevering your cleverest friends over a wink and an ale. Time, alas, to get serious. Some come to this realization easily. Others need a push from a wittier-than-thou young woman who calls out that charm as the mask that it is. Such epiphanies can be incredibly awkward. Also, outrageously funny. Join these entertaining young turks as they meet their collective match. And hurry – the time this one spends with us will be short and sweet. Haste must be made to ensure you don’t have to wait another 20 summers to see it.

There are many, many things we could share here about Love’s Labour’s Lost. For example, it offers the longest scene in any Shakespearean play, Act 5 Scene 2, weighing in at 942 lines (First Folio). That it’s thought to be the companion piece to a lost play titled Love’s Labour’s Won, which may actually be an early embodiment of Much Ado About Nothing. We could (and will) say that it hasn’t been produced at APT in 20 seasons, so be sure to see it – not just because it doesn’t come around that often, but also because it is infused with what Artistic Director Brenda DeVita recently described as “an unending pursuit of joy and happiness.” And after a couple of years of less-than-joyful circumstances, joy and happiness are something we could all use a little more of. It is a delight of wit and wordplay - a perfect Shakespeare to sit back and let the clever wash over you, or lean on in and catch every dazzling bon mot.

Artistic Director Brenda DeVita says:

You know those guys. The ones who think they’re the smartest, funniest, most charming people in the room. And sometimes they may be right, you know? Those guys are a lot of fun. But let’s be honest, It’s pretty entertaining to see them get a reality check now and again. The reason I’m so excited to direct this play – other than that it’s very rarely produced, which is a shame – is because, while the story is light hearted and funny, the language is incredibly complex and clever. It’s an early Shakespeare, where it is fun to see him discovering and testing his burgeoning super powers. Also, two of the leads - Berowne, played by Marcus Truschinski and Rosaline, played by Melisa Pereyra – it’s going to be thrilling to watch them brilliantly banter. The men in this play, they think they know what they want, and what their place in the world will be. To that end, they swear off women in order to focus on their studies, and then fall immediately in love with these, admittedly, very loveable women. But these women – they do know what they want, and it might not be what those guys expect. It’s going to be full of music and lots of laughs; and it’s been 20 years since this play has been on the Hill, so it’s definitely time.