'Love's Labour's Lost' review — fully embraces the Shakespeare comedy's vibrant Spanish setting

Read our review of Love's Labour's Lost, directed by Indiana Lown-Collins, now in performances at Shakespeare's Globe to 13 September.

Summary

• Love's Labour's Lost plays at Shakespeare's Globe
• Indiana Lown-Collins directs a flamenco-inspired production
• Norah Lopez Holden is a standout as the charismatic Princess
• The show features vibrant costumes and high spirits

Shakespeare’s early comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost seems to be having a moment. It was staged by the RSC starring Bridgerton’s Luke Thompson, Shakespeare in the Squares toured the play around London, and it is being presented as a double bill with its sister play Much Ado About Nothing by the Orange Tree Theatre. A romcom is always welcome in summer and Indiana Lown-Collins's Shakespeare's Globe staging fully embraces the play’s vibrant Spanish setting.

Every production at the Globe ends with a jig, whether it suits the play or not, and Lown-Collins's production is steeped in dance, namely vivacious flamenco (choreographed by Carmen Igarza to music by Michael McMahon and Adrián Solá). The cast are all accomplished dancers, with the sequences led by flamenco professionals Pablo Egea and Anita La Maltesa (in blue and gold costumes matching the Globe’s pillars). If it is something of a gimmick, it is implemented with full commitment and performed with plenty of attack.

This piece was probably written for the students of the Inns of Court rather than bawdy playhouse audiences and provided the young Shakespeare with an opportunity to show off his rarified rhetorical skills. The King of Navarre (Ned Costello) and his buddies Berowne (Philip Arditi), Dumaine (Jax Guerrero), and Longaville (Philip Labey) vow to devote themselves to study, which means no interaction with the opposite sex. However, in comes the Princess of Spain (rather than France) (Norah Lopez Holden) and her ladies Rosaline (Bea Segura), Katherine (Suzanne Ahmet), and Maria (Katy Stephens), and four couples inevitably form.

It looks great and designer Katie Lias fully embraces colour, texture, and all sorts of accessories. The ladies’ tiered frilly floral dresses are perfect for dancing in and the cast deserve kudos for donning fur hats and boots (and gold codpieces) when dressing up as Cossacks and huge masks for the pageant of the Nine Worthies on such a warm evening.

Lopez Holden steals the show with her charismatic stage presence as the Princess and she’s a terrific dancer. Instead of hunting a deer, she performs a gender-reversed paso doble in her red velvet outfit, in which she takes the role of the matador. Not all the performances are equally strong; she fully outshines the King, and the banter between Berowne and Rosaline (prototypes for Much Ado About Nothing’s Benedick and Beatrice) rather pales in comparison.

The densest jokes were probably old hat even in the 1590s and this production prefers to employ visual and contemporary gags to do the heavy lifting. Longaville impresses Katherine with Shakespeare's words set to Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca”, and Dumaine expresses his feelings to Maria through rap.

It’s a bit confused with what to do with the supporting characters. Pedantic scholar Holofernes (Stephens again) is a ditzy TEFL tutor trying too hard to fit in with the locals in her matchy-matchy ensemble of red and white polka dots. Flamboyant soldier Don Adriano de Armado’s (Andro Crespo) role is also uncertain.

The choreography, colour, and high spirits have the crowd fully on side. Not everything works but it makes for an enjoyable Iberian minibreak on Bankside and leaves you feeling that it might be fun to try a flamenco class.

Love's Labour's Lost is at Shakespeare's Globe to 13 September. Book Love's Labour's Lost tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Love's Labour's Lost (Photos by Tristram Kenton)