Year: 1962
Title of the play: Love’s Labour’s Lost
Author: William Shakespeare
Director: David William
Others in the Cast: The 1984 production: Kenneth Branagh, Emily Richard, Roger Rees, Josette Simon, John Rogan, James Simmons, Adam Bareham, Alison Rose, Kate Buffery, Harold Innocent, Amanda Root, Frances Barber, Brian Parr
Company/Event: New Shakespeare Company
Theatre and location: Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, London
Other productions of the same play: 1984: dir. Barry Kyle, Royal Shakespeare Company Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. In this production, Peth played Don Adriano de Armado.
Plot summary: The King of Navarre and three of his lords form a little 'academe' in which they vow to study for three years, renouncing the company of women. But the Princess of France and three of her ladies arrive on a diplomatic mission, throwing the plan into chaos as soon as the vows are made. The men from Navarre trump each other in a scene in which they are overheard reading aloud their bad love poems. The ladies then comprehensively outwit the men in a scene involving Russian disguise. A comic sub-plot concerns an extravagantly spoken Spaniard, his clever page, a country clown and a pregnant dairymaid, with contributions from a curate and a pedantic schoolmaster, culminating in a pageant of classical and biblical heroes, 'The Nine Worthies'.
Summary from here
Peth’s role: Dumain / Armado in 1984
Reviews:
Production details:
1962 -
Related links:
A very Peth-ic observation on theatre, on the occasion of the staging of this play: So, the cast arrived in 1984 clutching its plastic cups of coffee to approach Love's Labour's Lost, lacking for the most part a strong tradition and training in common; and, at the same time, sharing a lack of innocence from preconception - though of course the preconceptions were all different. Each had to commit to placing the first faltering foot on the floor of the rehearsal room, to hazarding the first sounds of his or her character's voice. At this moment the actor is at his most naked, his most vulnerable. From an article by Peth in "Players of Shakespeare 2: Further Essays in Shakespearean Performance".
Gallery:
1984: Peth as Armado and Amanda Root as Moth.
Original pic from "Players of Shakespeare 2: Further Essays in Shakespearean Performance".
