Love's Labour's Won - or - Much Ado About Nothing

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 5 March 2015

This production, provocatively retitled 'Love's Labour's Won' to underscore its relation t 'Love's Labour's Lost', is directed by Christpoher Luscombe with Edward Bennett as Benedick and Michelle Terry as Beatrice. It is set just after the First World War ostensibly in Charlecote Park, again to draw parallels to the earlier play.

The same production team is responsible for both plays; at the opening of this one there are hospital beds and nurses, but this soon gives way to the lighter-hearted mood of relief that ushered in the Twenties. Once again Nigel Hess's music evokes the era, with a concluding ragtime-like dance number.

Love's Labour's Lost

by William Shakespeare

seen by live streaming from the RSC on 11 February 2015

This production directed by Christopher Luscombe features Edward Bennett as Berowne and Michelle Terry as Rosaline. It is set in the summer of 1914 ostensibly at Charlecote, the Elizabethan manor house near Stratford on Avon (in whose park the boy William is reputed by some to have poached deer).

Details of the manor house have been used and adapted to provide a library and a drawing room as interiors, and a gatehouse and roofscape, as well as indication of the park, as exteriors. The stage design, by Simon Higlett, is inventive and bewitching. Music by Nigel Hess evokes the style of Elgar and the often melancholy tone of folksong to brilliant effect.