People who are serious about the language generally love Shakespeare. That said, “serious” is a word that probably should not be applied to Love’s Labors Lost, a comedy he wrote around the time he was tossing off Romeo and Juliet.
It’s full of word jokes, although I admit lots of them are not easy to grasp given the references of the late 1500’s versus those of today. The cast working in Forest Park at this year’s Shakespeare Festival St. Louis makes it easy to laugh, though, even at ones that make one think, Wait – whaat? Yet the giggling continues to burst forth.
The very young King of Navarre (Sky Smith) wants to have three of his pals sign an oath calling for three years of study, fasting – and no women. Of course he’ll sign it, too. And he means it. The guys agree, although Biron (Bradley James Tejeda) is the most hesitant, seeming to understand more than the others how difficult this will be at their age. Egad, sure enough, the princess of France (Kea Trevett) appears with three lovely ladies-in-waiting and a majordomo, all to bargain with Navarre over a debt he owes her ailing father. Need I go further?
Well, actually, yes. Ne’er ran smooth and all that, so on top of all this we throw in Count Armado (Phillip Hernandez) a visiting noble from Spain who has the hots for a country maid named Jaquenetta, also the objet de passion of a peasant named Costard (Patrick Blindauer, who has a marvelous voice). The ladies-in-waiting and the king’s pals all know or have heard about each other, including Biron’s meeting Roseline (Laura Sohn), the feistiest of the young women, at a dance previously. Sparks were struck.
It’s always nice to get some idea of the story line in Shakespeare and opera if you’re not familiar with a show, and here's this year's Post-Dispatch story on it, by Calvin Wilson and Judy Newmark . That will help clarify even more.
Director Tom Ridgely, the Festival’s executive producer, has greenlighted a style that’s all in, and so it should be. Armado, the Spaniard, is reminiscent of Don Quixote but minus the shaving basin. Plenty of leering and physical comedy, especially from the men, with some characters mixed in specifically for comic relief, the way Armado is.
Tejada’s Biron is, in some ways, a stronger character than Smith’s king, who’s nicely restrained in his majesty. Biron is freed from having to play it cool when his hormones jump into gear. It’s the same with Trevett’s princess and Sohn’s Roseline, the former taking the lead but deliberately allowing her attendant leeway to use her special talents to confound the menfolk. Sohn grabs that with gusto.
Two of the comedic characters also call for some recognition. Katy Keating is Nathaniel, a priest, and Carine Montbertrand a mortarboard-wearing tutor and scholar. Montbertrand seemed to be channeling Fran Lebowitz, not that there’s anything wrong with that, goodness knows. The two provide some of the most understandable and funniest moments in the show. Special credit to Toodle Bug, playing the role of Goat, who is said to be “the only goat in D Bar S farm history to perform in a role other than dairy-related.” A tip of the leash to Molly Meyer who, as Jaquenetta, does a graceful job handling Toodle Bug and her other responsibilities as well.
The play is set outside Navarre’s castle, so the stone walls and garden benches and a nice iron gate set designer Jason Simms give us fit right into Forest Park. Melissa Trn gives us chronologically varied costumes, many reminiscent of the 1904 World’s Fair era and some harking back to conquistadores and others of Shakespeare’s periods. Interestingly, this isn’t at all jarring, merely piling on the fun. John Wylie did the lights and Rusty Wandall the sound. Matt Pace and Brien Seyle are the composers of the score and do much of the delightful and often slyly charming onstage music, too.
If this spring’s precipitation gives you pause, please know that there’s a weather hotline for the show. 314-531-9800, extension 7, is updated hourly beginning at 7 p.m. And you can even reserve a blanket and a spot for it now.
A romp in the park, indeed.
Love’s Labours Lost
through June 23
Shakespeare Festival St. Louis
Shakespeare Glen
Forest Park