To the best knowledge of literary historians, Shakespeare never had a stag trip to Ibiza … but if he did it would have gone something like this. An early comedy, the original was set in France where the King of Navarre and friends try to abstain from women for three years only to become infatuated with a princess and her ladies.
This reimaging co-production by Shakespeare North Playhouse and Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre follows the huge success of 2023’s The Comedy of Errors (More Or Less) by the same team of writers Elizabeth Godber and Nick Lane and director Paul Robinson. That play boasted a 1980s chart hits soundtrack and spoke of the northern powerhouse dukedom of Prescot, Merseyside, and in the seaside dukedom of Scarborough, North Yorkshire.
Now Love’s Labour’s Lost (more or less) sees our cast jet off to the Spanish island for a stag party for groom Ferdy (played by Timothy Adam Lucas) – King Ferdinand in Shakespeare’s original – while the hens head off to Menorca.
The three years of restraint and moderation has been chopped down by the writers to just three days – to handily tie into a long weekend of initially faux frolics.
However a strange twist of fate alters the girls’ itinerary and the lads’ vow to swear off women for the stag is sorely tested when the hen (Annie Kirkman) and her three pals unexpectedly rock up.
And the the boys’ Balearics are stirred further with half the characters increasingly hooked on ‘pep pills’ sold by lovelorn holiday home rental boss Armado (the effervescent David Kirkbride).
While lurking in the background are rumours of a female assassin who could be laying low from the police but available on request for a quick amorous revenge ‘hit’.
The eight-strong cast – an equal gender split – play multiple roles, such as Thomas Cotron’s audience favourite OTT Spanish police officer, and give a full, energetic and high octane Paul Robinson show.
And the 90s soundtrack gives nostalgia to a something that’s completely new and already bubbling, spreading the appeal of the re-worked new text.
Hollywood‘s been shamelessly lifting Shakespeare’s plots since movies were called ‘pictures’ and he’s often placed on a resolute pedestal.
So it’s exciting for writers to plug back into this original characters with refreshing new concepts, settings and music to show new generations just what there was to marvel at in the first place.
Love’s Labour’s Lost (more or less) – at Shakespeare North Playhouse until Saturday 22nd March and the Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre from Thursday 27 March to Saturday 19 April 2025.
Directed by Paul Robinson, adapted from Shakespeare by Elizabeth Godber and Nick Lane.
* Tickets available from Shakespeare North Playhouse on 0151 433 7156 www.shakespearenorthplayhouse.co.uk and from the Stephen Joseph Theatre box office on 01723 370541 and online at www.sjt.uk.com
