Two Classic Shakespeare Comedies to Screen at Lincoln Theater‏

RSC PRODUCTIONS LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST AND LOVE’S LABOUR’S WON WILL SCREEN  

at Damariscotta’s Lincoln Theater in a two day special event in April.

LOVE’S LABOUR'S LOST: WEDNESDAY APRIL 1 at 2pm and 7 pm

LOVE’S LABOUR’S WON: THURSDAY APRIL 2 at 2 pm and 7 pm 

Damariscotta, Maine - The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is continuing it’s collaboration with Picturehouse Entertainment in 2015 on ‘Live from Stratford-upon-Avon’, a programme to screen its productions live from Shakespeare’s hometown.  It screens locally at Damariscotta’s Lincoln Theater in downtown Damariscotta.

Long time collaborator with the RSC Christopher Luscombe, will direct one acting company in both Love’s Labour’s Lost and Love’s Labour’s Won (usually known as Much Ado About Nothing).

Love’s Labour’s Lost

Summer 1914. In order to dedicate themselves to a life of study, the King and his friends take an oath to avoid the company of women for three years. No sooner have they made their pledge than the Princess of France and her ladies-in-waiting arrive, presenting them with a severe test of resolve.

Shakespeare’s sparkling comedy delights in championing and then unravelling an unrealistic vow,

mischievously suggesting that the study of the opposite sex is in fact the highest of all academic endeavours. Only at the end of the play is the merriment curtailed as the lovers agree to submit to a period apart, unaware that the world around them is about to be utterly transformed by the war to end all wars.

Love’s Labour’s Won, or Much Ado About Nothing

Autumn 1918. A group of soldiers return from the trenches. The world-weary Benedick and his friend Claudio find themselves reacquainted with Beatrice and Hero. As memories of conflict give way to a life of parties and masked balls, Claudio and Hero fall madly, deeply in love, while Benedick and Beatrice reignite their own altogether more combative courtship.

Shakespeare’s comic romance plays out amidst the brittle high spirits of a post-war house party, as youthful passions run riot, lovers are deceived and happiness is threatened – before peace ultimately wins the day.

Christopher Luscombe directs the second of Shakespeare’s matching pair of comedies that rejoice in our capacity to find love in the most unlikely places. Better known as Much Ado About Nothing, the play is performed under the title Love’s Labour’s Won, a name possibly given to it during Shakespeare’s lifetime.

Tickets are $15 Adults / $13 Lincoln Theater members and $5 for Youth 18 and under. They will be available at the door at 2 Theater Street in Damariscotta one hour before show time.  Additional information can be found by visiting the Lincoln Theater website, www.lcct.org, or calling the theater at 563-3424.