 Among the intimate redwoods in the outdoor Sinsheimer-Stanley Glen, SSC will present two contrasting plays by William Shakespeare, the bittersweet, romantic comedy Love's Labour's Lost and a masterpiece of revenge,Othello. The indoor Theater Arts Mainstage will be the venue for this drama of personality and political intrigue:The Lion in Winter by James Goldman. All three plays will be performed in repertory from July 20 through August 29, 2010. Nothing less than men and women at their best, and worst....
"... when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Make heaven drowsy with the harmony."
Love's Labour's Lost
Love's Labour's Lost is Shakespeare's most profoundly Elizabethan comedy, replete with witty debates, dazzling wordplay, and strongly drawn comic characters. This bittersweet romantic, at times hysterically funny, play was written around the time of the playwright's most fecund period (1595), the same year he penned Richard II. Love's Labour's Lost came to life between the creation of plays like Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Among the many magnificent speeches in this play is Shakespeare's own treatise on love, spoken by Berowne, arguably the most apt words ever penned to describe this most sublime of human emotions.
The play is set in Navarre, a kingdom evocative of restricted societies devoted to the quest for self-improvement through bookish study. The king's youthfully naive self-imposed command not to allow the distraction of women into the court is all but shattered with the arrival of the Princess of France and her feminine entourage. The men, who had vowed to avoid all women in favor of intellectual pursuits, immediately fall head over heels and begin finding ways to allow the power of love to take its natural prominence over learning and the affairs of state. But the realities of life finally intrude on the revelries, as Shakespeare reminds us of the cyclical nature of death and rebirth.
"I kiss'd thee ere i kill'd thee, no way but this,
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss."
Othello
Shakespeare has created two masterstrokes with this play: one of his most hateful villains and one of his most poignant tragic heroes. This is a masterpiece of revenge that examines the inner workings of a sick mind with astounding detail and explores how the power of suggestion can transform a perfect love into murderous jealousy. Shakespeare has set Iago's pathological fiendishness against Othello's honesty, love, and integrity. The playwright subverts the racial stereotypes accepted by the audiences of his day to embrace the deception of appearances and the grave danger of assumptions.
Othello is unquestionablyone of Shakespeare's greatest creations; a towering masterwork sure to set the mind whirling and the pulse racing.
Henry, "Give me a little peace.
Eleanor, "A little? Why so modest? How about eternal peace? Now there's a thought."
The Lion in Winter
The goings-on in The Lion In Winter sound as if they should be set in twenty-first century America, rather than 12th century Europe: insecure siblings fighting for their parents' attention; bickering spouses who can't stand to be together or apart; adultery and sexual experimentation; the struggle to balance work and family. In this play, replete with some of the most dazzling dialogue ever created for the stage, James Goldman has turned domestic toil into a heightened art form.
Henry II and his wife,Eleanor of Aquitaine, are battling each other mightily to put the son they each see fit on the throne of England. The problem is that they don't agree on which of their three scheming sons it should be. This is the quintessential drama of family strife and competing ambitions, delivered up with historical and psychological insight, breathtaking language, and delicious biting cleverness.
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