SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
The play
The Noel Coward Theatre, London
By Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard
Adapted for the stage by Lee Hall
Director Declan Donnellan
The film came out in 1998 and won a number of Oscars. But the romantic comedy of the Bard of England suffering writer’s block cured by his falling in love with Lady Viola De Lesseps seems to be suited to the stage in a far more natural way.
The impossible liaison between Shakespeare the penniless playwright (Tom Bateman) and Viola (Lucy Briggs-Owen), promised in marriage to Lord Wessex, is imagined as the background to the writing, casting and first staging of Romeo and Juliet. This initial production is a joyous celebration of theatre which embraces elements of music, dance, mime and comedy woven around Shakespeare’s wonderful poetry and prose. The on-stage period music and the counter-tenor voice of Charlie Tighe are an added delight.
