Following the success of Bad Jazz and Stoning Mary earlier this year, St. John’s Mummers effortlessly bring their usual vitality and dynamism to Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.
The deft abridgement of the original script’s obscurity contemporises the play, and is enhanced by the 1920s costume, uncluttered set and simple use of props. This sunny romantic comedy encapsulates the Trinity Term experience: four young scholars attempt to devote themselves to their studies, but are soon tempted by the promise of summery shenanigans with the opposite sex.
Director Philip Bartlett nurtures excellent performances from the seventeen-strong St. John’s cast of varying acting experience, led by Joel Phillimore who delivers a likeably playful and engaging performance as Berowne. The Mummers’ interpretation is refreshingly bright: the ‘ooh er, missus’ humour of the piece is brought to the fore of the sparkling dialogue through confident, though never patronising, delivery. The pudding of Shakespearean wit is by no means over-egged by nudge nudge, wink wink performances, but accentuated by quickfire dialogue and the evident enjoyment of the cast onstage. It is a delight, for English students in particular to genuinely enjoy an Elizabethan comedy for being funny! Moth’s (Tess Ellison) and Armado’s (Fiona Guest) fast-paced interchanges are a highlight, although every scene, and set change, is as elegantly brisk as Shakespeare intended.
If Pinter’s pauses aren’t your cup of tea, the twinkling script of Love’s Labour’s Lost should have you packing your picnic basket instead. The production, staged in the beautiful gardens of St. John’s, has adopted a BYOB (bring your own blanket) policy, and runs from Monday to Wednesday of Fifth Week at 6.30pm.
Verdict: A Royal Treat
