Love’s Labor’s Lost
A laughing play about wry couples, rhymed couplets, and the impossibility of securing true love in two hours.
The King of Navarre and his lords have sworn a sacred vow: For three years they’ll forswear sleep, food, and the company of women in favor of pious study. So what are sworn men to do when a Princess and three attending ladies arrive on diplomatic business? Her Grace won't mind pitching a tent outside . . . right?
Four earnest idealists devoted to their books meet four irrepressible ladies on a mission. The formula is familiar—but the end defies the simplicity of happily-ever-after. With ladies more ribald than refined and a surprising final revelation, LLL refuses to stay the path on which it sets, turning a tired tradition on its head in search of real answers about life and love and what it takes to make a formula comedy into a compelling story.
Likely written in the mid-1590’s, LLL represents one of Shakespeare’s earliest works. Stunningly regular in meter and rhyme, the play is oft overlooked for its pervasive punning and elaborate rhetorical devices. This criticism, however, misses Shakespeare’s bold critique of the genre of romantic comedy. Don’t miss as Bedlam returns to its roots in Shakespeare and catapults this work from dusty desks into the play-osphere.
Warning: This wooing doth not end like an old play.
