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ED2011 1/5 Reviews ED2011 Theatre Reviews
Love (Rough Winds)
By Paul Collins | Published on Wednesday 31 August 2011
Eros may have regrets bringing these two lovers together on stage. In between enthusiastically kissing and pulling each others’ shirts off, the actors exchange lines of Shakespeare’s sonnets with as little eloquence as automatons. Zero attempt is made, musically or stage-wise, to do anything remotely interesting or original: the entrance song ‘All You Need Is Love’ shamelessly abuses the sonnets with inanity, while the untouched coils of rope strewn across the stage as if (dare I hope) to make a dramatic statement actually have no symbolic function. The actors and director have made an unforgiveable schoolboy error in considering love and Shakespeare from only one very generic and predictable angle. The bard would gag, were he alive to see this.
St John’s Church, 10 – 21 Aug (not 15, 16, 20), times vary, £6.00 – £10.00, fpp277.
tw rating 1/5
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