Don't miss this display of witty wordplay.Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard ASHLAND - If you can see only one play in Ashland this summer, "Love's Labor's Lost," at the outdoor Elizabethan Theatre, is the one to head for. The play is William Shakespeare's most outlandish comedy, one in which a master wordsmith word·smith n. 1. A fluent and prolific writer, especially one who writes professionally. 2. An expert on words. Noun 1. cut loose from the strictures of plot and character to play masterfully with language. There is, in fact, little else going on here; such plot as can be found (there is one, sort of) exists solely to support long, hallucinatory hal·lu·ci·na·to·ry adj. 1. Of or characterized by hallucination. 2. Inducing or causing hallucination. riffs that sound like the Marx Brothers Marx Brothers, team of American movie comedians. The members were Julius (1890?–1977), known as Groucho; Arthur (1888?–1964), originally Adolph and known as Harpo; Leonard (1887?–1961), known as Chico; and two other brothers, Milton (Gummo) and going head to head with Monty Python Monty Python('s Flying Circus) British comedy troupe. The innovative group, formed in the early 1960s, came to prominence in the 1970s, first on television and later in films. . On top of that, this is one of the most visually beautiful productions I've ever seen. Director Kenneth Albers has set the show in an indeterminate 1940s England. The traditional stage at the Elizabethan Theatre is transformed into an elegant resort hotel, with a graceful front of leaded glass doors and grounds of potted topiary topiary Art of training living trees and shrubs into artificial, decorative shapes. Topiary is known to have been practiced in the 1st century AD. The earliest topiary was probably the simple development of edgings, cones, columns, and spires to accent a garden scene. . Add to that the show's elegant costumes, particularly for the women - at moments, the stage looks like a historical fashion show - and you could, though your English professor would fail you retroactively, almost enjoy watching this "Love's Labor's Lost" without hearing a word of dialogue. Well, don't do that. You would miss a lot of laughter, especially at Ray Porter, whose comic timing is awesome in playing Costard Costard apes Elizabethan courtly language. [Br. Lit.: Love’s Labour’s Lost] See : Mimicry , the country bumpkin who learns the gentle art of wordplay from the better educated nobility, and often outdoes them at their own game. Albers directs a fast-moving play, its quick language accented by hilarious stage business that includes a riotous Russian dance. If you're anywhere near Ashland this summer, don't miss it. |
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