You can tell from the title that Love’s Labor’s Lost is not going to end “happily ever after.” But far from being messy or depressing, actor Edmund Lewis finds this early William Shakespeare comedy to be refreshing and realistic.
“I think [Shakespeare] was trying to explore the idea of, sometimes it doesn’t work out,” he says. “Sometimes you wind up with that person you’re in love with. Sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you have to wait. Sometimes your heart is broken. It’s just a charming exploration of love in its many forms…and of wisdom. And how love can make us do these silly things when we’re…not being completely honest with ourselves, or when we’re following our heart rather than our mind.”
Lewis plays the clownish everyman Costard in what he calls “a really lovely, romantic, silly production” of the show at Folger Theatre. It marks the New York-based actor’s second gig in D.C., after appearing in last season’s St. Joan, also at the Folger. While in recent years the 49-year-old Lewis has been seen in classical productions — most by Shakespeare — none of it has been by design.
“Actually, Shakespeare was not something I have ever aimed to do,” he says. “It really wasn’t something I had trained for or had a huge desire to do. It just kind of happened, and then my love for it developed.” In addition to increasing forays in film and TV, Lewis hopes to stretch himself with more contemporary stage works — and the out actor would be eager to finally get the chance to play a gay character. “I really haven’t [played gay], but I would love to explore that and tell that story.”
For now, however, he’s enjoying treating Folger audiences to the Bard’s early battle-of-the-sexes comedy, directed by Vivienne Benesch. “This one’s always been considered one of his troubled plays, because there are certainly a couple of logic things that are strange,” he says. “And it’s not a terribly plot-heavy comedy. I’ve seen a couple of different productions of it that haven’t quite worked. I think this one gets pretty close to what it should be.
“I think Vivienne has done a really great job with it. And it’s a really great cast, and so it kind of keeps things fun and buoyant. We’ve taken a somewhat difficult play and just made it hugely entertaining.”
Love’s Labor’s Lost runs to June 9 at the Folger Theatre, 201 East Capitol St. SE. Tickets are $42 to $79. Call 202-544-7077 or visit www.folger.edu.
Hugh Bonneville and I, at this moment in time, are waxing rhapsodic over the music of Downton Abbey. I've confided to the British actor that I am obsessed with the sumptuous, lush score to the point where I listen to little else for days on end.
"John Lunn," Bonneville smiles. "He's a lovely Scottish composer and a dear man. That music is just -- when you just hear those opening bars, it just gets you into a certain mood."
That certain mood will return in the fall as Julian Fellowes's extraordinary creation, in which Bonneville plays Lord Grantham, the head of the titular estate, will take its final bow with a third and final film, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.
You would think that, by now, reasonable theatergoers would be exhausted by angry, self-serving bloviates who unleash profanities and cruel language on each other and anyone within earshot.
Obviously, there is more demand for it, as David Mamet's 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning Glengarry Glenn Ross is back on Broadway for a third time.
And, like the unwitting suckers who fall into the clutches of this predatory group of real estate sharks, audiences are quick to drop top dollar to see a starry cast comprised of Bob Odenkirk as Shelley Levene, a past-his-prime salesman looking to increase his numbers, Bill Burr as Dave Moss, another older sales guy who huffs and puffs like the big, bad wolf, and Kieran Culkin as hotshot Ricky Roma, a slick smooth talker who has no time for excuses.
Arriving at a particularly tense time for the nation's capital, Woolly Mammoth's funny, subversive It's a Motherf**king Pleasure is a breath of fresh air. It's inoculated in that this is British-born and performed theater -- and the Brits really do get something of a pass when it comes to the kind of irreverence that would otherwise raise eyebrows and hackles.
Indeed, this special brand of immunity is tested in the first few frenetic minutes of Motherf**king where all energies are spent trying to decipher whether it's okay to laugh or if this is some kind of awareness-raising exercise (or, in other words, a trap) for the well-intentioned but woefully-not-getting-it.
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