[FairfieldLife] 'Play -The Summer of Love/Maharishi/ 'The King of Mysticism'

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 22:46:37 -0700

THEATER
The summer of ‘Love’ (Gay)
A new production transports ‘Love’s Labors Lost’ to India in the swinging ’60s
By PATRICK FOLLIARD

Hank Stratton (left), Michael Milligan, Erik Steele, Amir Arison and Aubrey Deeker look like the Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s ‘Love’s Labors Lost.’ (Photo by Carol Rosegg)
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
When directing Shakespeare, Michael Kahn, longtime gay artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, refuses to play fast and loose with period settings. Sometimes he makes an exception, but only when it illuminates the play in some way. Moving his theater’s current offering “Love’s Labors Lost” from long ago Navarre to India circa the swinging 1960s, is one such case.
Specifically, Kahn has set the action at an ashram where Ferdinand the King of Navarre (Amir Arison looking like a sexy guru) has traded a life of courtly comforts for one of ascetic mysticism. Not unlike the Maharishi Yogi who gave guidance to the Beatles and other truth-seeking ’60s celebs, Ferdinand is joined by band mates Berowne (Hank Stratton), Longaville (Erik Steele) and Dumaine (Aubrey Deeker) who dash on stage chased by a wave of bursting flash bulbs and squealing fans.
The king persuades the overindulged rock stars to join him for three years in abstaining from earthly pleasures, particularly women.
Things quickly change when the fetching Princess of France (Clair Lautier) and her glam girl gang — Rosaline (Sabrina LeBeauf best remembered from “The Cosby Show”), Katherine (Colleen Delaney who successfully draws on her usual intensity for laughs) and Maria (Angela Pierce) — arrive on the scene seated atop Crayola-colored Vespas.  
RIFE WITH RELENTLESS rhyming couplets, wordplay and witty banter, this early Shakespearean work is a battle of wits with these ladies outsmarting the gents at every turn. Undaunted, the band pursues its icy quarry as best the members know how, setting sonnets to rock ‘n’ roll.
“Love’s Labor’s Lost” is arguably Shakespeare’s most feminist work; repeatedly in the play, restrictive gender roles of the Bard’s time are blatantly scrapped. How very ‘60s! Not only has the confident princess been sent to do business with Ferdinand in her feeble father’s stead, but she and her fierce female friends excel at keeping the love struck men in check.
Rather than the usual curtain of all’s well that ends well with couples locked in happy clinches, here the princess and company accept their suitors only on the condition that they prove their worthiness by spending a year secluded in monkish devotion.
RALPH FUNICELLO’S KALEIDOSCOPIC set explodes with colorful Indian details, pop art clouds and palm trees, while Mark Doubleday’s lighting blasts the stage with bright sunshine. Tony winner Catherine Zuber costumes the long-haired men in soft bell-bottoms and flowing, filmy tunics. The women are more Nancy Sinatra than Janice Joplin. With armor-like teased hair, jump suits, stiff mini dresses and white vinyl go-go boots, they’re invulnerable.
The ensemble cast includes STC vet Ted van Griethuysen as Holofernes, the pedantic schoolteacher, and a hilarious David Sabin as the parson Nathaniel. As befuddled Don Adriano Armado, Geraint Wyn Davies amusingly channels both Salvador Dali and Benny Hill.  And Michael Milligan fittingly plays the addled clown Costard as — what else — a total stoner.
After ending its run in D.C., Kahn is taking his “Love’s Labors Lost” to Stratford-upon-Avon, England, where it will be featured in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s festival “The Complete Works.”

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