The Sock ’n’ Buskin theatre company has decided to put on a production of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost instead of Othello this March.
Co-artistic director John Ryan said the decision was made after Othello auditions.
“Othello is a very difficult show to cast,” he said.
“Regardless of the race element, Othello and Iago are two very strong characters and it can sometimes be difficult to find actors who can go the distance with those characters,” Ryan said.
“We had a number of tremendous people come out and audition but no one who was quite right for the part so we decided to switch to Love’s Labour’s Lost,” he said.
Ryan explained that the lighter, less well-known comedy is more fitting in a university setting.
“It’s a Shakespeare with more of an ensemble cast so it allows actors to work together as opposed to carrying the show and also there’s a wider range of characters so it’s easier to fit students into the roles,” he said.
“We didn’t have a strong enough cast for [Othello],” director Dave Dawson said.
“It’s a good play, but it’s a better play to read than to perform,” he said. The decision to perform Love’s Labour’s Lost also came out of a search for material that wasn’t overused.
“We’ve already done A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth,” Dawson said.
Dawson described Love’s Labour’s Lost as “clever, witty, and full of wordplay” and said its script was “more organized, more complete,” than Othello’s.
“It’s a very academic play,” production manager Rachel Swatek said.
“You have these three young men who decide they’re going to pursue academia, they’re going to take three years and swear off anything that would distract them, especially women, and they’re going to become academics. Yet as soon as they make this vow, a princess and her friends show up.”
Swatek described the comedy as both “hilarious” and “beautiful.”
“[Dawson] sees the importance of putting on a quality show,” co-artistic director Geoff Burnside said. “If he doesn’t have auditions that are up to the standard that he thinks the show needs, but he sees potential for something else, we trust him fully to put on a show that he thinks is suited to the talent he has.”
Love’s Labour’s Lost will run from March 13-16.
