UW Theatre and Dance to Present Love's Labour's Lost April 19 24

April 13, 2005 -- The University of Wyoming Department of Theatre and Dance closes out the 2004 2005 performance season with "Love's Labour's Lost," one of Shakespeare's earliest and funniest plays.

Directed by Professor of Theatre Leigh Selting, "Love's Labour's Lost" runs April 19 through 23 at 7:30 p.m. and April 24 at 2 p.m. on the Fine Arts Center Main Stage. Tickets cost $13 for adults, $11 for seniors, and $6 for students. For information or to purchase tickets, call (307) 766 6666, stop by the Fine Arts box office (10 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays), or go online at www.uwyo.edu/FINEARTS.

"Love's Labour's Lost" pokes fun at stodgy intellectuals and zealous romantics alike, recording the thrill of love's pursuit and the resulting antics in uncompromising detail.

The story revolves around the young King of Navarre and his three compatriots, who swear off all earthly pleasures -- especially women -- for three years to devote themselves to learning. Abstaining from the "vain delights" of food, drink, and sleep proves hard enough, but when the Princess of France and her alluring entourage of ladies come to Navarre's court on a diplomatic mission, the four would be scholars begin to regret their ill considered vow.

The result is a comic escapade of lies and romance as the men one by one secretly fall for their fine female counterparts and the ladies play hard to get. Soon all discover that scholarly devotion cannot supersede love and that pretension cannot withstand the scrutiny of common sense.

"If you'll pardon the pun, working on this show has truly been a 'labor of love,'" says director Selting. "The students have embraced the challenge, and have found a kinship with the language, the story, and with Shakespeare."

Shakespeare makes liberal use of puns, bombastic poetic asides, and old fashioned one upmanship to both exploit and expose the absurdities of affected speech. For all their attempts to discover "what is the end of study," the king and his gentlemen cannot resist the impulse to study love's expression first and foremost in flowery prose and flattery.

Posted on Wednesday, April 13, 2005