I really hate only hearing half a story!Like my fellow specks wearer Woody Allen I'm 'anal'! I have to watch / read something from the very beginning and, with only some rare exceptions, will see it through to the bitter end however bad it turns out. Hence I have seen no end of cheesy late night movies which back in the day would have been labelled 'Straight to Video'.
So if you're the same as me and the Woodster then avoid this play at all costs! This definitely only feels like half a play. And a bad half at that!
Whether there ever was a missing sequel called 'Love's Labour's Won' we will now never know. And it might be wrong to say it but it might have been better if '...Lost' were lost as well instead of going 'Straight to Folio'!
The one scene I did like
was with the four men 'stacking up' as each hides from the next man
to arrive and read bad poetry. Then one by one they pop back out again with an iambic "Ah ha!!" I could imagine some good physical comedy
from that one! But unfortunately that would be in the direction more than the writing. Billy-Boy, in this case you should have heeded your own words!
"A jest's prosperity lies in the earAnd Finally - The 'Labours' set by the women for the men to prove their love are a bit random. Three have to simply wait a year (although one also has to grow a beard) but the last has to spend that year helping the dying by making them laugh! Now that's hard! I mean how many times can you tell the "...I could boil you an egg" gag?...
Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it."
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