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| Estelle Kohler, Ian Richardson. |
LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST
[Dramatic Revival] A: William Shakespeare; D: David Jones; DS: Timothy O’Brien,
Tazeena Firth; L: Stewart Leviton; M: William Southgate; P: Brooklyn Academy of
Music b/a/w the Royal Shakespeare Company Production; T: Brooklyn Academy of
Music (OB); 2/13/75-4/6/75 (13)
In Edith Oliver’s words, this was a “lavish and accomplished”
revival of Shakespeare’s extravagantly poetic comedy about lords,
ladies, and love at the King of Navarre’s court. Deemed “a charmingly lyrical
whimsy” by John Simon, it was part of a four-play repertory brought over by
England’s Royal Shakespeare Company.
According to Douglas Watt, the pretty setting consisted of “a
grassy stage cloth . . . , a huge green cloth that sails above the playing area
from deep in the rear like a promise of spring and forests, and a few stylized
trees." The music was “wonderfully Brittenish,” said Simon, and Oliver observed
that “Shakespeare’s lines just pour out, sounding as they are meant to sound,
and the actors have completely mastered all those rhymed couplets.”
David Jones, wrote Simon, “directed with inventiveness and
finesse, although he did not quite succeed with the final saddening and
darkening of the tone.” “Stylish and firm,” the staging may have been, but “relish
and excitement” seemed to Oliver to be absent. Clive Barnes, however, scored
the production’s “zest” in its favor. Unlike Simon, he appreciated the “grave
beauty” of the closing, “unforced and gentle in its melancholy.”
What John Beaufort dubbed a “glistening revival” was marked
by the widely acknowledged brilliance of the acting ensemble, but Simon, despite
his respect for their talents, thought the company “less than perfect.” Martin
Gottfried described the acting as “sterile, . . . cold and uninspired
professionalism," leading to a “bland production.”"
These disclaimers aside, Ian Richardson’s Berowne was the
centerpiece performance. “Mr. Richardson gave us a far more spirited Berowne
than is the more ironic custom,” declared Barnes, “with his mellifluous voice
broken with passion as well as with humor.” Simon, however, considered him “a
bit overripe and even faintly sinister.”
The cast included David Suchet as the King of Navarre, Robert Ashby as Longaville, Michael Ensign as Dumain, Tony Church as Don Adriano de Armado, Susan Fleetwood as the Princess of France, Patrick Godfrey as Boyet, Janet Chappell as Katharine, Lynette Davies as Maria, Mike Gwilym as Costard, Norman Rodway as Holofernes, and Jeffrey Dench as Sir Nathaniel.