Sarah Afful (centre) as Rosaline with Josue Laboucane (left) as Costard and Ijeoma Emesowum as Maria in Love's Labour's Lost.David Hou
It's often said you can't do much, or much wrong, with the early Shakespearean comedy Love's Labour's Lost: four noble students vow to eschew female company; four noble ladies arrive; a lot of flowery poetry, quick wit and easy laughs ensue. Watching the film of the 2016 Stratford Festival production, however, I glimpsed the possibility of something more interesting, a darkly ambivalent satire of both pedantry and love. Unfortunately, no such thing materializes as director John Caird fails to mine his multiracial casting; we get an energetic and well-spoken version of a script full of word play about fair ladies and black brows, but never anything provocative. On film, director Barry Avrich offers welcome close-ups of a cast whose bright performances suggest they would be up for a whole lot more: a charming Sanjay Talwar makes a slightly dim King of Navarre easily bested by Ruby Joy's strong Princess of France; a friendly Mike Shara and sharper Sarah Afful are prettily matched as Berowne and Rosaline. The pleasant but undemanding results seem mainly calculated to please the educational market.
Kate Taylor