It has always struck Gregory Doran that Love’s Labour’s Lost and Love’s Labour’s Won belong together.
Christopher Luscombe directs both with a single company of actors in a five-hour double-bill set locally in a Warwickshire country estate and deer park.
Sat in the audience was the Lord of another stately home – in ITV’s Downton Abbey. The actor Hugh Bonneville, looking tanned in a burgundy suit, began his career here at the RSC.
Love’s Labour’s Lost opens in the library of Charlecote Park, in the long hot summer of 1914.
The King of Navarre and his three chums Longaville (William Bellchambers), Dumaine (Tunji Kasim) and Berowne (Edward Bennett) recline in plush red tapestry armchairs and a chaise longue as they vow – somewhat reluctantly on Berowne’s part – to devote three years to study. No woman is allowed within a mile of the King’s court. There is public schoolboy camaraderie.
Impressively, in Scene Two the library slides to the back of the stage like a shrinking painting to reveal a grass lawn underneath and the warm red-brick exterior of the historic Tudor house. The Princess of France (Leah Whitaker) and her three ladies-in-waiting Maria (Frances McNamee), Katherine (Flora Spencer-Longhurst) and Rosaline (Michelle Terry) are greeted by a No Women sign on the front door.
You cannot but stare in awe and admiration at Coventry-born Simon Higlett’s breathtakingly clever stage design and beautiful Edwardian costumes. The attention to detail is second to none.
The public school camaraderie between the King’s men is never more evident than in a superbly choreographed rooftop scene. There are gasps as a glass dome and smoking chimney pots rise from beneath the stage where Berowne, in a blue dressing gown, is composing a sonnet to secret crush Rosaline under the stars. His three friends singularly follow suite, each in a different colour dressing gown – Dumaine, with his teddy bear, in a nod to Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited.
What happens next is hilarious as the men hide behind chimney pots and cling onto the rooftop wall to avoid being caught out. When their love affairs are finally out in the open Berowne cries out: “Let’s embrace” but the glass dome gets in the way; and a polite handshake suffices.
Edward Bennett’s Berowne is charming and enthusiastic. He possesses a boyish optimism; while Michelle Terry’s Rosaline has a teasing twinkle in her eyes. After their first meeting Berowne opens a tower window and shouts down to the Princess’ Equerry, Lord Boyet (Jamie Newall): ‘What’s her name in the cap?’ When Berowne asks Costard to deliver a love letter to Rosaline, violins fill the air – much to the gardener’s bewilderment. The couple’s sharp-witted exchanges feel rather polite and slightly restrained, as befitting the time.
In that long, hot summer of 1914 when the world fell apart, Britain was at the peak of its fortunes, with London the capital of a world empire. Luscombe’s production is idyllic, filled with blue skies, birdsong, deckchairs, and a typical English bowling green.
Composer Nigel Hess has done a brilliant job reflecting the musical styles of the pre-war period, from an Ivor Novello-eque ballad performed by Spanish traveller Don Armado and servant Moth, to the Gilbert and Sullivan inspired operetta in the Nine Worthies sequence, a real balalaika for the Russian dance and music hall.
Love’s Labour’s Lost is wonderfully observed by an exceptional ensemble cast. There is some lovely wordplay by the flamboyant Spaniard Don Armado (John Hodgkinson) with his mispronounced English, doddery schoolmaster Holofernes (David Horovitch), who has the funniest laugh, and comic Costard (Nick Haverson).
But the mood quickly swings from sunny to sorrowful as news arrives of the death of the King of France. Each of the four blossoming relationships are cut short and given 12 months breathing space. The Princess and her ladies leave for France, as do the King and his men who march off in Royal Warwickshire uniform – to the Frontline.
Love’s Labour’s Lost ends in mournful song at the start of the First World War; Love’s Labour’s Won, the post-war sequel awaits..
Running time: approximately 2hrs 35mins including the interval
At the RST until March 14, 2015.
