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"Sarah
Megan Thomas, Producer, Artistic Director, and
Birona (aka
Berowne) in this production of "Love's Labour's
Lost" released the following "mission"
statement: her company "aims to increase
the accessibility of theatrical performances by
exploring classical theatre from contemporary
perspectives," and it, "encourages its
audiences to discover connections between the
generations of 'then ' and 'now'...." Love's
Labour's Lost is an excellent project for the
company, being verbose and knotty even by Shakespearean
standard, with a rather uneventful plot that postpones
the expected weddings at the play's end. The Thirteenth
Night Compayn has admirably met the challenges
of this play. Women? In 1.1.? Thacker's most dramatick
alteration is a gender switch
straight down the cast list.... How does this
cross-gendered production work? Brilliantly."
"But
first, a moment of homage to the brilliant ensemble
work of the
aristocratic quartets, male and female alike.
They convey and easy intimacy, manifested through
casual physical affectation and caressess, and
, from both groups, bursts of uproarious laughter.
The friends in each quartet have clearly known
one another long and well, an intimacy that provides
a thought-provoking counterpoint to their reserve
about the state of their hearts. The shattering
of this secrecy, engineered, ofcourse, by Birona,
is
a high point in this consistently strong production."
(Magaret
Lael Mikesell)
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