AN A+ FOR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER
GAZE
Christopher Gaze has once again triumphed not
only as Artistic Director but as actor par excellence in this 8th annual
presentation of Shakespeare's romantic comedy Love's Labour's
Lost.
This Shakesperean classic is a merry play about the irresistible magic of
love. It is a tale of the King of Navarre (Mike Stack) and his lords, Berowne
(David Marr) who reminded me succinctly of the great Laurence Olivier, Longaville
(Anthony Santiago), and Dumaine (Allan Zinyk) who pledge to forsake the company
of women for three years in order to devote themselves to the pursuit of
knowledge.
However, when the Princess of France (Tiffany Lyndall-Knight) and her three
beautiful ladies, Rosaline (Tracey Erin Smith), Maria (Jennifer Lines) and
Katharine (Denyse Wilson) arrive, they tempt the men from their scholastic
path and search for knowledge.
Meanwhile, Don Adriano de Armado (Peter Anderson), the Quixotic Spaniard,
and Holofernes (Christopher Gaze), a schoolmaster, brush through with comic
relief reliving the wit and playful linguistic games of the
Bard.
Peter Anderson was an excellent stereotype of the typical Quixotic Spaniard,
lost in his "impossible dream" as he courts and wins his lady love, Jaquenetta
(Jane Spence), a country wench. Shakespeare must surely have patterned this
from Don Quixote and Dulcinea. On the other extreme from Anderson's cartoon
portrayal of Don Adriano, Christopher Gaze, was, as always, the Shakesperean
actor everyone dreams of becoming. His portrayal of the glib and bumbling
schoolmaster was comically divine.
The 18th century setting of Navarre in the late 1700s imagined by Director
Miles Potter was well chosen. In his direcotor's notes, he adds: "I like
to imagine that our Navarre is going through a period of Chinoiserie when
European courts were swept up with a passion for things Oriental." The costumes
designed by Mara Gottler reflected this imagery: shining satin in oriental
designs. The use of the Chinese gong also reflected this
chinoiserie.
Shakespeare has been experimented in many ways and in many periods, as in
Tyrone Guthrie's cowboy presentation of Midsummer Night's Dream, or
Burton's portrayal of a contemporary Hamlet in black in the sixties.
The French neoclassic mood that Potter injects in this play worked quite
well thematically.
The actors kept the audience laughing, particularly with their comic antiques,
more than with their lines, I thought. The Muscovite scene drew a lot of
laughs, and the choreography at the end of the play, with the French 18th
century cotillon by Trudy Forest combined with George Ryan's musical
direction/composition ended this Shakesperean classic very
nicely.
Congratulations to the cast and crew for another entertaining and delightful
Shakesperean production!
Haig Sutherland as Moth and Peter Anderson as Don Armado in Love's
Labour's Lost.
Photo: Glen Erikson
Review: Ed Farolan