This is a main house production by the RSC's chief associate director with a high-profile star and yet it is only doing 5 previews and 20 performances in total in Strtford only. It will not go to Newcastle or London or anywhere else. To me this seems like a hopeless waste of propduction resources, not to mention money - how on earth can it be justified to mount a major production for 20 performances only ?

They have done it before, of course, with the William Houston "Coriolanus" and the Anton Lesser "Winters Tale" just to name two recent ones.

The Arts Council should add this type of bizarre "exclusive" scheduling to their list of items to discuss with RSC.

You are so right - I can't go cos can't do the dates. very silly. Espesh as Tennant in main role and he will [ should] be good for this.
Dunno what's going on except that Tennant prob has other stuff to do and only wanted to be there for this year and couldn't commit to next for anything but Hammers. They don't seem to have a flexible scheduling as does the National which tends to bring good stuff back and abort the horrors, though RSC did abort Tamar's Revenge didn't they, not before I had destroyed a couple of hours of my life and several brain cells. Am rambling..sorry.

You may be right but why did they not just do 20 extra performances of Hamlet and forget about LLL entirely ? - it seems absurd to have a rehearsal period which is longer than the public run of the play itself.

This is absolutely ludicrous

Why are the RSC so stupid?

LLL could be such a cash cow for them

Well, they are not stupid, so why are they doing it ?

My guess is that because they are staging so few productions this year but their Arts Council grant has not reduced (and the redevelopment of the RST is being funded separately) they have to spend the money so they don't have a surplus at the end of the year and risk a (entirely justified) cut in their grant. So, they blow the costs of an entire main house production on a 20 day run.

To be charitable, they might revive it later on with a different cast.

Love's is being done apparently because David Tennant had always wanted to play Berowne. The set will be the same as for Hamlet, so essentially the costumes will be the only expense, and there will only be one new cast member, Nina Sosanya, playing Rosaline.

Is a shame but there have been times in the past when the RSC gave London and the rest of the country productions that Stratford never saw, which had short runs.

I like how the title of the thread could sum up the whole situation.

"The RSC likes doing a lot of work that isn't going to have much of a lasting impact; in fact, you could say the RSC loves labours lost!"

Oh, it is a vanity production ? I must admit I had not considered that possibility.

The RSC are extremely lucky to get Tennant - the BBC's 'flagship drama' has rearranged its schedule to accomodate his wish to do stagework and I assume he's taken a very large paycut to work with the RSC. There aren't many actors who could guarentee a sell-out of anything for several months as he has done. If part of the deal is that he does another play (which has also sold-out) then I don't see that as particularly unreasonable. Plus, I assume the rehearsal process is shorter than that of Hamlet - same cast, used to working with each other - or doesn't it work like that?

And, of course, I've got tickets!!

As a matter of interest, which other actors do we think could do Hamlets that are both sell-outs and critically acclaimed? I assume Jude Law will sell out (and, judging by his previous stage performances, I don't think he'll be an embarassment). Matthew McFadyen isn't quite at that level of fame (Henry IV at the NT didn't actually sell out, despite having Michael Gambon).

Daniel Radcliffe - even if tickets sales were restricted to members of this board it would sell out considering the excitement here the last time he appeared on stage.

The idea that the RSC does Tennant a favour by having him do more work (more rehearsals, more lines to learn, more everything) is funny. I for one like the fact that not only is he back on stage, but he is doing two plays in rep. It feels more like a proper committment.

Doesn't the idea of Daniel Radcliffe doing Shakespeare just make you feel like blood is going to start dripping from your face? At least at this stage of his career, without some hardcore training under his belt.

(And not that I didn't get the joke, but 'Equus' wasn't even a sell-out in the end, so... nevermind, moving on. :3)

You're missing my point. Radcliffe would sell out (I've no doubt Hugh Grant would too) but he wouldn't deliver a performance that would receive the reviews Tennant has (though maybe he would - who was that early 19th century child actor who did Hamlet when he was 12?). There aren't that many 30-something classical actors who have both box office appeal and undoubted stage presence and the RSC is lucky to get Tennant not the other way round,

So now we have Daniel Radcliffe playing Hamlet with Hugh Grant playing Claudius and then Ben Wishaw [destroyed on another thread ] could give us his Lear. Madonna as Gertrude. This is prophecy by the way. Just wait.

I really want to see this Hamlet but only if Jade Goody is Ophelia!

I think the RSC are a bit wary of putting on too many performances and having empty seats....far more people are prepared to see a very popular play like Hamlet and the tickets for that sold out far quicker....Love's Labour's Lost won't appeal to as many people. Stratford is hardly far from London and there was lots of time to book tickets if you really were that keen....I shall be travelling from Oxford.

i am very sad i wont get to to see this as we could not get tickets its a shame only a few shows but im sure David will blew every one away with his performance as will the whole cast

completley wrong!
the show features a tree taking up the stage as well as 72 seperate hanging vines from the grid; NOT featured in hamlet

Woo! I agree! And lets have Schwarzenegger as Polonius!


I just saw Love's at the weekend it worked much better. I thought Hamlet was brilliant, but, I don't know, the actors just seemed to come into the roles much better: not just David. Edward Bennet especially, whose Laertes just didn't really work, I don't think, was pretty ok as the Navarre, and Mariah Gale was better too.

I can confirm that the set is different, and that there were a few new actresses in it, including Kathryn Drysdale.

Funny you said that, because one of the few things that didn't work for me was Mariah Gale. She is superb in everything I have seen her in, except for Love's Labour's Lost. It felt too heavy, too slow, I was getting bored with her.

Almost everything else is great: the production's energy is irresistible, unsurprisingly David Tennant was born to play Berowne, and Ricky Chaomp as Costard stole most of his scenes.

How long is it, please?

The programme says 2hrs 45mins, but although the starting time is 7:15pm and I don't think they were late, it finished at 10:15pm, so they are pushing three hours.

(minor spoiler but also something you might want to know: be at your seat early, both at the start and also coming back from the interval. I won't say more but you want to be in your seat at least five minutes before the action starts officically. Although the foyet sees some action at the interval. And you can't be everywhere).

Ooh! Exciting. Thanks, Poly.

The RSC has updated the running time to 2 hr 55 mins.

I can understand why Loves Labours Lost is considered a difficult play, but this production worked brilliantly for me. It was hilarious! Okay - the rapping could have been tiresome, but it didn't outstay its welcome with me, and the performances were excellent.

I'm going to see it again and will do a bit of background reading next time to understand the more obscure jokes and wordplay, but it certainly wasn't necessary to enjoy this production.

Saw this last night and really enjoyed it. David T looked a bit tired to me but his command of the stage and comic timing is brilliant. I thought Edward Bennett was particularly good...better than his role in Hamlet for me. Lovely design of stage and costumes. Looking forward to reading the play again now and intend to use the quote "I smell false Latin" as much as possible.....

Finally saw this last night and it's no great loss that this production won't be transferring along with Hamlet, and since the last performance is playing as I write this I won't be bothering with any spoiler warnings. Considering that the word is that doing LLL was Tennant's idea, and that he was apparently very keen to play Berowne, his performance was surprisingly lacklustre. Funny, yes, but hardly more than that, but then the same could be said for this production as a whole.

It's all about the funny bits – here more than occasionally enhanced by adding some extra physical comedy where such isn't to be found in the play itself – and little else. You'd never have known from seeing this production that LLL is in fact possibly the play with the most diverse and joyous use of poetry and verse, in every shape and form conceivable, of all the plays of the canon. Hardly anything of that is to be heard here, which I supposed shouldn't have surprised me after the curious prose-Hamlet that this ensemble were all guilty of, and when the verse on a few rare occasions does rear its head it's such an exotic beast that the surprise almost makes you gasp.

Having said that, it is funny, especially Joe Dixon's hilarious Armado, who is more than ably supported by one of the best child actors that I think I've ever seen in a Shakespeare play, Zoe Thorne as Moth, who makes a far better job of the verse than any of the adult actors in this play. Tennant cuts a less than impressive figure as Berowne, Oliver Ford Davies is hardly noticeable as Holofernes, and I can hardly think of a single noteworthy performance from the rest. And someone please tell me, when exactly did the RSC decide that you can dispense with the verse when it comes to Shakespeare? I usually like Doran's productions, but these last two are distinctly below par, this one probably comes in at around 3 stars, and I think that's being generous.

Zoe Thorne appears to be 24 years old. I think she's just very small. I agree with any and every praise lavished upon Joe Dixon for this play. :3 Tennant did have awesome stage presence, but I didn't feel the need to write home about his performance.

I also loooooved the set. I was in the stalls, round at the side, so while the theatre is well-designed that no one misses much, I didn't get the full impact of the set until I went strolling at the interval and saw it from the centre circle. It was unbearably pretty and I adored it. :3

Do you think it's been awkward for Edward Bennett and Mariah Gale, playing lovers one moment and then siblings the next?

Really? My mistake in that case, she looked about 12 to me and is indeed very small, she can't be much taller than 4 foot.

I was lucky enough to get return tickets for Loves on Friday night and I have to conclude that the 6 hour wait was worth it as no-one does Shakespeare quite like the RSC. Having seen Hamlet last month, I was very interested to see what the same cast would do with a comedy.

Considering the theatre stages different shows on a daily basis, the staging was impressive with a large tree dominating the stage - a combination of the traditional – a large tree trunk, and the modern - the leaves depicted with green Perspex shapes hanging from the flies. The perspex was used to great effect allowing subtle lighting changes to shine through the “leaves” thus depicting the passage of time during the day.

Of course the wonderfully intimate atmosphere of the Courtyard theatre makes the audience feel even further immersed into this world and as comedy is the main point of this production it’s great to see such a cleverly directed and at times completely side-splitting production on the stage. Some Shakespeare productions can be seen as stuffy, outdated and difficult for a modern audience to understand but this show manages to make the language completely understandable to even the most cynical Shakespeare-watcher. I understand the complaint from traditionalists that verse speaking is overlooked or ignored. However I think that with this casting, the RSC were anticipating a new and younger audience and I think it was a conscious directorial decision to make the verse more understandable and approachable. I do not think it detracts too much from the obvious audience enjoyment – I have not seen something on stage that has made me laugh so much for a very long time and if this is an introduction to Shakespeare for anyone then I think it is a good start.

As an ensemble piece, it is quite difficult to pick out any one actor more deserving of praise then another. Joe Dixon made a fantastic and beautifully over the top Armado with Zoe Thorne being a great sidekick, having the attitude of a pompous child down to a T. I thoroughly enjoyed Tennants comic timing and some of his facial expressions were priceless (another great advantage of the Courtyard seating being that all the audience are close enough to appreciate such subtle gestures). Did the hat trick towards the start of act 1 normally work as it seemed to almost surprise the cast when it was perfectly executed on Friday? I also appreciated Edward Bennett’s talent much more in this production as he seemed much more at home with the character.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this production and feel it is a shame that it only played a few shows. I guess from Jenny’s review above that it just goes to show it would not do for everyone to like the same thing.

Saw this twice and yes the hat missed both times, so I think they are used to that being the norm! I too found it incredibly funny....perhaps I am the target audience as I am very ignorant concerning Shakespeare and therefore don't even notice the lack of verse! I did, however enjoy it hugely and thought everything about the set/costumes was gorgeous. And tennant was a star...you just had to watch him when he was on stage.

I have just returned from a weekend of seeing both LLL and Hamlet. Thought both were excellent, Hamlet particularly so. I totally agree about Tennant - you can't help but watch him. He's such a versatile actor, with so much subtlety to what he does - he can change from sad to happy and vv in a flick.

I absolutely loved Holofernes, found him a total hoot, such a perfect parody of that Oxbridge scholar type. I found Armado difficult to understand and thought Zoe Thorne overdid it rather, and I didn't enjoy the rap bit at all (I hate people trying to pander to kids!) but otherwise it was very fun. Nina Sosanya was just fabulous. I really felt chemistry between her and David Tennant.