Review: Love's Labor's Lost by Present Company Theatre
by Michael Meigs

What better time than spring — even a Texas spring — for a play about the foolishness of courting? And who better to present it than Present Company, the players who’ve left Rain Lily Farm again this year for the rooftop terrace at Whole Foods Market in downtown Austin?

  

 

  

Love’s Labor’s Lost has long lingered in unlovéd obscurity, and not just for its alliterations. Shakespeare probably wrote this court entertainment in the mid-1590’s, at about the same time as Romeo and Juliet, but this one is no tragedy at all.  In fact, it’s a tale of merry note about falling head over heels in love. The wordplay, quibble and mockery with which it’s crammed will probably go shooting cheerfully over the heads of the audience gathered up there on benches, blankets and folding chairs, but the story fourfold is that of gallants distracted from intellectual pursuit to run after pretty ladies who laugh at them and give them a hard time.  

 

 

 

 

The setting is courtly. King Ferdinand of Navarre and his three buddies have sworn off distractions (including women) to devote themselves to study for three years when, wouldn’t you know it, up turns the Princess of France with three more high-born charmers. They’ve all met and enchanted the guys before.  When there’s a pull and tug between study and infatuation, guess which wins out? There’s many a UT undergraduate who could complete that story for you.  Mix in an assortment of clowns and fools — the clowns devoted to fleshly pleasures, the fools with their heads in the high-flying glories of language and pedantry — and you’ve got a celebration that doesn’t let up.

 

Director Stephanie Carll turns the court of Navarre into a pleasant vision of anglicized Hindu royalty —‘namaste!’ and chiming bells, yogic postures, white garments and colorful capes and scarves.  It’s a cheerful vision filled with the handsome and beautiful people devoted to the enchantments of theatre.  

 

 

 

 

Present Company gives you a big helping hand with Shakespeare and the text.  Again this year they start the festivities with a clever pre-show by four actors talking about Shakespeare and his language, preparing the public for what is to follow. One reassuring piece of advice is simply to sit back and let that extraordinary language wash over you; you’ll get used to it.

 

Further help comes with the program: two pages giving you a full summary of the action.

 

The acting style is broad but it doesn’t undercut either story or language; rather, at every point throughout the gentlemen’s pursuit of the ladies and their teasing response, movement and gesture tell just as much of the story as does the text. All of them glow with health and vitality, and we’re pleased to be included in their antics.  Leading pair Ferdinand (Mateo Barrera) and the princess (Rene Fulton) are the instigators throughout. Everyone in the company has trained to meet and overcome the rooftop noises downtown. Fulton is particularly impressive with her full-throated and musical voice.

 

In the secondary are three assorted pairs. Eva McQuade struts and blusters as the unapologetically lascivious rascal Costard, complete with drooping mustache, paired most of the time with Constable Anthony Dull (Weldon Phillips). Fantastical Spaniard Don Adriano de Armado (Sergio Alvarado), a noble of big words and very little brain, is accompanied by cheeky young Moth (Victoria Harrison, a new face for me, endowed with cocksure manner and Cockney acent). And then there are the hopeless pedants, Ann Hulsman as Holofernes and Craig Kanne as Sir Nathaniel — it’s somehow reassuring to think that even 425 years after Shakespeare’s time it’s easy to imagine the groves of academe populated with cuckoo birds.

 

The action takes place mostly on the broad boardwalk across the rooftop, but a number of scenes occur on a mandala platform about 10 feet across  situated in the midst of the audience.  To be sure of following everything close-up, you’d do well to locate yourself close to it.  Action begins onstage around 7:30 p.m., and by the time that area is employed, those sitting closer to the percussion section (to the right of the audience) will observe most of that action only in silhouette against the long disappearance of the Texas sun. 

 

Present Company is devoted to the principle that art should be free for all, which is in itself more than enough reason to deposit a fistful of dollars in the basket. They’ve organized a fine party for you up there on the rooftop and all you have to do is kick back, admire and enjoy.

 

EXTRA

 

Click to view the program and ‘cheat sheet’ for Love’s Labor’s Lost.

 

 

 

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Love's Labor's Lost
by William Shakespeare
Present Company Theatre

Performances run April 17th-May 10th, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings. Seating (and music!) begins at 6:30 for a 7pm performance. Guests are encouraged to bring a blanket or short chair, and grab picnic goodies from Whole Foods before the show. Promoting the philosophy of “accessible & sustainable art,” SHAKESPEARE AT THE MARKET is a FREE event, however a $15-20 donation is suggested for guests able to support.

RSVP HERE:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/shakespeare-at-the-market-loves-labours-lost-tickets-16473318138