One of Shakespeare’s earliest comedies and least performed plays, Love’s Labour’s Lost is a play about contrasts; boys and girls, chastity and promiscuity, comedy and tragedy, the ‘owl and the cuckoo.’ Nick Bagnell directs this version of the 400-year-old play in The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at The Globe. As is tradition, the whole play is lit by candlelight which has cleverly been made into a feature of the plot and concept.
Love's Labour's Lost at The Globe Theatre - Photography by Marc Brenner
Talawa Theatre - the UK’s primary Black led touring theatre company - ’calls the ravers in’ with its latest performance Run it Back. It is introduced with an astounding spoken word piece by the formidable Jasmine L Jones - she speaks about her love of a woman called poetry as she intricately interweaves what we know to be classical poetry with hip hop classics spanning decades. The woman she loves cannot be defined by rules, she is everything from John Donne to Kurtis Blow.
I’m not really sure how to express all of those things that I felt during the National Theatre’s first PUBLIC ACTS (a community theatre programme) project, PERICLES. I cried a lot, I laughed a lot, I felt joyful and I also felt relieved because PERICLES made me realise that not all is lost and bleak, that theatre still holds the power to change lives and allow for thousands of people to share something special together.
In spite of the small size of the venue, the quality of the Black Cat: Bohemia circus skills is great. And at 70 minutes, this is a really fun way to spend part of an evening. Recommended.
It's something of a family affair at The Park Theatre. Real-life mother/daughter Sally George and Rafaella Hutchinson play Mari and Little Voice while real-life mother/grandmother Ann Pinnington co-produces.