"Love's Labors Lost"
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Graham Watts
Summer, 2001.
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"Love's Labors Lost" |
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One rainy London April evening I keyed the words "As You Like It" into my computer to try to resolve a textual point on a production of the play I was working on. "Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre" came up. I was intrigued, accessed the site, and world of creativity, endeavor, and a genuine love for the Bard opened up before me. Sixteen months later here I am in Fairbanks, Alaska, experiencing that same heady mix of passion, talent, and perseverance which is so Elizabethan in spirit and such a joy to be part of.
It is my fundamental belief that the plays of Shakespeare are a common coin to be shared by all. They are not a crossword puzzle where there is one exact meaning that matches some clue or other. They are rich, ambiguous, and personal to all that watch them. They are to be enjoyed not endured, they are fun and accessible, with clarity and meaning that resonates through the ages.
Uniquely the story and characters in Love's Labors Lost have no source and are entirely of Shakespeare's imagination, making this the most personal of his plays, the work where we truly catch a glimpse of the man from Stratford. He had no doubt found himself in Berowne's position with the 'Dark Lady of the Sonnets,' been taught by the pompous Holofernes, met with Costard in the fields around his home. Perhaps it was Dull who allegedly arrested him for poaching and, when he moved to London, he probably bumped into Boyet and Armado when his plays were presented at court.
You will notice that I've spelt Love's Labor's Lost in the American and not English way. This is quite deliberate and indicative of how Shakespeare has been anaesthetized over the years. You rarely see what he actually wrote on the page; other productions and stage traditions influence each production. (In Romeo and Juliet for example, there is no balcony mentioned in the text, but I don't think I've ever seen a performance that dispensed with one.)
And so it is with Love's Labor's Lost, the original spelling from Shakespeare's time, but now universally spelt "Labour's." It is the very thing that Shakespeare pokes fun at in a hilarious exchange between Holofernes and Nathanial. I've been working on Shakespeare professionally for 20 years now, and it has become abundantly clear to me that the way we speak the text in England (and the rest of the world follows suit!) is sterile, diminishes the sounds, rhythms and meaning, and segregates the audiences from connecting with the text.
The American accent, spellings, and often words, are Elizabethan in their root, unpolluted by 400 years of close immigration in the UK and worldwide influences with trade from the "Commonwealth" countries. (Scholars speculate that Virginian American is the closest accent to how Shakespeare himself would have spoken.) One of the joys for me in working on this play is to hear the language come to life in the mouths of my outstanding team of actors. It is like seeing an old master gleam with color after a careful restoration.
Finally, I word of thanks to your wonderful community here in Fairbanks which has made me feel so very welcome. It may be cold here for the most part of the year, but the warmth I've experienced from the people I've met has made this a very special place for me and a very special production. Enjoy!
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