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The Actor's Repertory Theater is a theater troupe associated with Harvard, and tonight was the last performance of a show put on by some of their students.
"Love's Labors Lost" is generally considered to be one of Shakespeare's "lesser comedies", and sometimes is even classified as a "problem play.” This is how Shakespeare scholars say, “waitaminute -- this play sucks.”
I mean, there’s a lot of good stuff in the play, but, on the whole, not much happens, and there’s a whole lot of boring bits in it making fun of Elizabethan scholars, which is apparently really funny if you know a lot of Elizabethan scholars.
So, modern productions, recognizing these facts, take the basic setup, characters, and outline of the play, and all the good scenes and lines, throw out the boring bits, and then fill in the rest with whatever they want.
When Kenneth Branaugh did it, he filled it in with 1930s musical numbers.
This production used mainly 1950s musical numbers. Oh, and Don Adrieano was Chico, Costard was Groucho, a couple of the minor roles were Harpo, and Jaquenetta was Marylin Monroe.
( Read more... )
"Love's Labors Lost" is generally considered to be one of Shakespeare's "lesser comedies", and sometimes is even classified as a "problem play.” This is how Shakespeare scholars say, “waitaminute -- this play sucks.”
I mean, there’s a lot of good stuff in the play, but, on the whole, not much happens, and there’s a whole lot of boring bits in it making fun of Elizabethan scholars, which is apparently really funny if you know a lot of Elizabethan scholars.
So, modern productions, recognizing these facts, take the basic setup, characters, and outline of the play, and all the good scenes and lines, throw out the boring bits, and then fill in the rest with whatever they want.
When Kenneth Branaugh did it, he filled it in with 1930s musical numbers.
This production used mainly 1950s musical numbers. Oh, and Don Adrieano was Chico, Costard was Groucho, a couple of the minor roles were Harpo, and Jaquenetta was Marylin Monroe.
( Read more... )