‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ explores the meaning of commitment | Entertainment

Shakespeare’s comedy “Love’s Labour’s Lost” provides a humorous exploration of how differently men and women view romance.

The Brattleboro Union High School Players present their production of the play on Friday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 18, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the BUHS auditorium.

The Players have set the action in an unnamed Ivy League college in the 1950s-60s. King Ferdinand decides that he and his three close friends must focus on the academic life and forgo the company of women. They swear an oath to each other to follow an ascetic existence. The King decrees that all in the kingdom shall do likewise.

Shortly thereafter, the Princess of France and her three ladies-in-waiting arrive on a diplomatic mission to negotiate repayment of a debt her country owes to the King. Though they are lodged far from court due to the decree, the four women are granted an audience with the King. Despite immediately falling in love with the women, the King and his three friends keep their tender feelings hidden, publicly upholding their vow. As the action unfolds, two love letters are mis-delivered, confessions of love are overheard, and the clever deceptions enacted by the Princess and her women teach the men that true love must prove itself over time.

Miguell Soto, a sophomore, plays the King.

“It’s fun to play him,” Soto said. “I get to boss people around. My character wants to make his kingdom the wonder of the world.”

The king’s three comrades are portrayed by Jason Donahue, a junior, as Dumaine; Naveen Lalanne, a junior, as Longaville; and Lotte Gannon-Kurowski, a junior, as Berowne.

“Dumaine, who falls in love with Katherine, is not that bright, but he acts as if he is,” Donahue said. “He’s loyal to the king to a fault. (At one point) we dress up as beatnik poets to gaslight the women, but they see right through us and choose to deceive us.”

“We’re the king’s dudes, his bros,” Lalanne said. “I like my character. Longaville’s the youngest of the four lads and very much of a follower. He’s naive and doesn’t really know what’s going on. He falls in love with Maria. He met her before at a college mixer.”

“Berowne talks!,” Gannon-Kurowski said. “I have a lot of lines. This is the first time I’ve played a male character. I have to move like a very confident man and project it out to the audience. Physicality and voice all help.”

Drea Kurowski, a ninth grader, portrays the Princess, heir to her father’s throne. The character is intelligent and skeptical, but “she goes for the King,” Kurowski said.

Val Allen, a junior, plays Katherine, one of the princess’s ladies-in-waiting, who is pursued by Dumaine.

“This is Shakespeare,” Allen said. “The mood and the tone help you understand the language. As our director says, ‘If you know what your lines mean, the audience will, too.’”

Malika Anthes, a junior, portrays Rosaline, another of the ladies-in-waiting. Berowne is her suitor.

“She’s very smart,” Anthes said. “She’s mean to Berowne and dismissive of him although her ill feelings eventually vanish. She’s judgmental, witty and sarcastic, which are fun qualities in a character.

“This is a funny romantic comedy,” Anthes added. “If I weren’t in it, I would go see it.”

Estella Walker, ninth grader, plays Maria, the third of the ladies-in-waiting.

“Maria is the nicest of the four women,” Walker said. “She is pursued by Longaville, and they love each other. She is very proper and keeps her dignity. She reminds me of me.”

This being Shakespeare, there is a play-within-the-play, and subplots, one of which involves the groundskeeper, a foreign exchange student, and the exchange student’s girlfriend.

Anika Wiltermuth, a tenth grader, portrays Jaquenetta, a serving maid in the King’s court.

“She is the exchange student’s girlfriend,” Wiltermuth said. “She is very flirty with him. She knows her place and doesn’t draw attention to herself, and respectfully curtsies when she’s around the nobles.”

Dashiell Moyse, a senior, plays Costard, the clown.

“He’s the fool,” Moyse said. “He delivers the letters to the wrong people. He mispronounces words. He’s an idiot in the nicest way. I’m happy to do a light-hearted and comedic role.”

Director Rebekah Kersten, BUHS teacher of English and Theatre, chose this play for several reasons.

“I’ve loved Shakespeare ever since studying “Romeo and Juliet” my freshman year of high school,” she said. “This seemed the right time because I have several students who really enjoyed working on some Shakespeare last year, and I wanted to capitalize on that. Also, Shakespeare’s plays lend themselves to flexible casting, always a plus. I knew I wanted to direct a comedy, and “Love’s Labour’s Lost” is one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known earlier comedies.”

While Shakespeare’s works are universal and timeless, Kersten said, the language can be a barrier to understanding, being “so different from how we communicate today. Because the central plot follows four young noblemen who decide to swear off women and focus on academic pursuits for three years, the Ivy League college system in the 1950s-60s seemed like a natural fit.

“Seven of the eight Ivies were all-male at the time,” she continued, “and there were traditional affiliations between the Ivies and the Seven Sisters colleges. We’ve changed the location names to reflect the Ivy League/Seven Sisters identities. The gents are from Hanover and the ladies are from Hadley. And I added a prologue in which we see the couples meeting each other at an Ivy Mixer at Harvard.”

Particularly in this time period, Kersten said, students were routinely bussed from their own college to one of the others for dances and other “mixer” events to socialize. Most audience members are familiar with the Ivy League, so that background knowledge provides the audience with context for the various plot points in the show. It helped the actors, as well.

“When I framed this story as a battle of the sexes on a college campus in the 1950s, that gave the actors enough access points for them to create their characters,” Kersten said. “The acting style is also very different from the realistic style many students have done in other plays. Elizabethan acting is larger than life, energetic, and presentational. The actors feel proud of themselves when they are able to understand the lines and deliver them in a way that helps the audience understand them, too.”

In Shakespeare’s day, Kersten added, the audience went to “hear” a play, not “see” a play. The focus was on the language—the wit, the banter, the emotion. The focus wasn’t on the sets, costumes, or props, but on the characters and what they were experiencing.

“This play is all about the commitments we make in our lives,” Kersten said, “and why we choose to keep them or break them, and how that impacts the people we care about, for good or ill. I want people to leave thinking about the commitments in their own lives. Which ones are they keeping? Which ones are they breaking? Are they balancing their priorities in a healthy way?”

The Brattleboro Union High School Players present “Love’s Labour’s Lost” on Friday, Oct. 17, at 7:00 p.m. (ASL-Interpreted Performance) and Saturday, Oct. 18, at 2:00 p.m. (ASL-Interpreted Performance) and 7:00 p.m. in the BUHS auditorium. Tickets $10 at the door.