​Love’s Labour’s Lost review – Wild comedy and deep meaning as RSC turns new page

​A fresh era for the RSC begins in promising style with this exuberant production, which brings gravity to an otherwise lightweight work.​

This is the first show in the first season under the company’s new artistic directors, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey. They seem keen to refresh, renew and reinvigorate the venerable institution, and there is certainly plenty of vim in evidence here. It may not all quite come together, but it certainly makes for a pretty wild night at the theatre.

Love’s Labour’s Lost is not generally regarded as one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. The comedy has various characteristics typical of an early work: a bit too pleased with itself and show-offy, a sense of having little to say but a lot to say it with. There is interminable punnery and wordplay that straddles the line between intricate and irritating. It does happen to be genuinely funny in places, however; and in the hands of director Emily Burns and a very capable cast, its comic potential is more than fulfilled.

The play tells of a group of young men who swear off women in an attempt to improve themselves. But they struggle to uphold their vows when a group of young women appear on the scene. There follows a tale of temptation, confusion and miscommunication, the men’s machismo, vanity and vacuity the source of much of the humour.

Shakespeare set the play in the Basque kingdom of Navarre. Here, Navarre is one of those ‘wellness’ resorts frequented by people with far too much money, and it is on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The men are presented as ‘tech-bros’, that class of billionaires who made their money from the internet; in a moment of astringent irony, they have to hand in their gadgets upon arrival, an acknowledgement that the world they have helped create may be at the heart of their problems. The women appear initially just as shallow, preening and posing; but they prove to have a depth lacked by the men, whom they outwit.

It would all make for a diverting but insubstantial show. So Burns deserves credit for adding a dimension that makes it feel far more rounded and satisfying. We are reminded that these Pacific islands are real places, where real people have lived for countless generations; there is a richness and beauty to their culture, which seems genuinely healthy in a way that ‘wellness’ could never be, but which is threatened by the consequences of consumer capitalism. It all adds welcome power, heft and emotion to the play, without feeling heavy-handed.

More so than many Shakespeare works, this is something of an ensemble piece. Luke Thompson – known to many from the Netflix series Bridgerton – is the nominal star, but terrific performances abound, not least from Nathan Foad as a fantastically camp Costard and Ioanna Kimbook, understated and steely as Rosaline. Paul Englishby’s music brings heart and charm, and Joanna Scotcher’s set, decadent in the truest sense, works excellently.

The story sometimes gets a bit lost amid it all; the fizz can obscure the flavour. But if the RSC can sustain this balance between the entertaining and the earnest, between the fun and the profound, it can look to the future with hope.

Love’s Labour’s Lost runs until May 18. Call 01789 331111 or visit rsc.org.uk to book.