Love's Labour's Lost

This is Shakespeare at his most linguistically daring: a comedy built on the purest folly. King Ferdinand of Navarre and his three lords swear a ridiculous oath to foreswear women's company for three years of study and fasting. They have barely signed the pact when the Princess of France arrives with her ladies, and every man immediately, spectacularly falls in love. What follows is a glorious game of courtship where the lords must somehow pursue the very women they've sworn to avoid, inventing increasingly absurd justifications for their forsworn hearts. The play crackles with wit, elaborate wordplay, and the delicious absurdity of men who believe they can outthink desire. But Shakespeare refuses the expected happy ending. The Princess's father dies offstage, and all weddings must wait a year. The laughter stops just short of resolution. Here is a shimmering meditation on the gap between noble intention and messy human longing, on the promises we make and the hearts that betray them.