An Interview with Love’s Labour’s Lost Director Rob Clare
By Laura Millar
Q: Why this play, and why now?
A: I’ve actually wanted to do this play for a long time. It’s not one you often seen done, but I’m really not sure why. It’s a play of joy, laughter, and life affirmation.
Q: What has been particularly challenging about this production?
A: Traffic management!! There are a few scenes that have almost the entire cast on stage at once.
Q: What has been particularly fun about this production?
A: It’s a fun fest, and the more irreverent we get, the more fun it is. We call it “LLL” for “Love’s Labours Lost”, but it’s really “Love, Life, Laughter” for us. The play really dances its way through the evening.
Q: What has been the biggest discovery during the rehearsal process?
A: What a good play it is – ask the cast!
Q: This production is set about 100 or so years ago in Oxford. What inspired that choice?
A: The play starts with a group of young men swearing off women for 3 years in a same-sex environment to study. That was Oxford, when I went there as an undergraduate – though I’m not quite 100! So it’s a world I know well.
Q: Why is this play important to you?
A: This play is wonderful because it encompasses enduring truths about humanity. People sometimes say Shakespeare was ahead of his time. But working on this play has reminded me that he was ahead of ours, too – we are still catching up to him.