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Reviewed by:
  • Love's Labour's Lost
  • Freddi Lipstein
Love's Labour's Lost Presented by The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, D.C. June 6–July 30, 2006. Directed by Michael Kahn. Set Design by Ralph Funicello. Costumes by Catherine Zuber. Lighting by Mark Doubleday. Sound Design by Martin Desjardins. Composer Adam Wernick. With Amir Arison (King of Navarre), Hank Stratton (Berowne), Erik Steele (Longaville), Aubrey Deeker (Dumaine), Clair Lautier (Princess of France), Sabrina LeBeauf (Rosaline), Angela Pierce (Maria), Colleen Delany (Katherine), Floyd King (Boyet), Geraint Wyn Davies (Don Armado), Nick Choksi (Moth), Ted van Griethuysen (Holofernes), David Sabin (Sir Nathaniel), Rock Kohli (Dull), Michael Milligan (Costard), Jolly Abraham (Jaquenetta), and others.

Imagine the "Fab Four" retiring to an ashram in India to study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and you have the flavor of Michael Kahn's spirited production of Love's Labour's Lost. Kahn explained to the company at the first rehearsal that, when he was invited to bring a production to the Royal Shakespeare Company's Complete Works Festival, he was asked to bring a comedy with a distinctly American slant. Kahn saw distinct parallels between the King of Navarre's "academe," which Shakespeare intended as a satire on the young men in the Earl of Southampton's court, and the wave of celebrities, the Beatles among them, who flocked to the Maharishi in the 1960s seeking enlightenment. The women in this play also dominate their male counterparts, and Kahn saw this theme as one that also emerged strongly in the American 1960s. Inspired by the Beatles, Kahn made the King's followers members of a rock and roll band, and the King the Maharishi. He set the production at an ashram in India and cast actors of Asian-Indian extraction to play the King of Navarre, Jaquenetta, Moth and several other native characters.

The set was a simple courtyard in front of the ashram, with palm trees and bushes and a vivid, painted rainbow on a scrim. Adam Wernick composed original music for native Indian instruments—the sitar, the tambura (an unfretted lute) and the tabala (a small hand drum)—as well as 1960s rock and roll music for each of the lovers' sonnets. As the play opened, the Maharishi-King of Navarre was clad in orange Indian garb, walking contemplatively as musicians played Indian music. Suddenly there was [End Page 86] the roar of a landing plane, a clamor of screaming fans, and flashbulbs going off as Berowne, Dumaine, and Longaville entered from the rear of the house and ran onto stage with their guitars and drumsticks. They wore skin-tight "rocker" outfits, their long hair held off their faces with headbands. After they swore their vows to study and abstain from seeing women, they quickly exchanged their western clothes for robes and sandals.


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Figure 1.

Hank Stratton as Berowne, Michael Milligan as Costard, Erik Steele as Longaville, Amir Arison as King Ferdinand and Aubrey Deeker as Dumaine in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of Love's Labor's Lost. Photographer Carol Rosegg.

Costard was a long-haired hippie in tattered jeans, a denim vest, earrings and sunglasses. He brilliantly captured the essence of a '60s peacenik and protester, and was frequently stoned—a good explanation for why he confused the letters he was meant to deliver for Berowne and Don Armado. Don Armado wore a full-length zebra coat with white epaulettes, tight black pants, black boots, and a large black fedora. He sported a Dali-esque moustache and frequently punctuated his lines with a parade-dress martial stomp that startled those around him. He adopted the conceit of tossing his walking stick as he spoke; his fluid and agile servant Moth would catch it and redeliver it to him.

The women entered the ashram riding Vespas and wearing skin-tight riding suits and boots. Boyet was dressed in red trousers, a pink shirt, [End Page 87] and a white jacket with pink flowers on it—quite the dandy. For the hunt scene, the women donned safari-type outfits that consisted of tight shorts or short skirts and boots. Later, as they discussed the favors...

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