Love's Labor's Lost

Fellow Elizabeth Zeman Kolkovich explores what a stage direction about Blackamoors might mean.

Scott Maisano describes a Berowne who stands out and stands aside from the fictional world represented in this Shakespeare comedy.

The word “love” appears 2,146 times in Shakespeare’s collected works (including a handful of “loves” and “loved”). Add to that 59 instances of “beloved” and 133 uses of “loving” and you’ve got yourself a “whole lotta love.” So, what does…

Folger Public Programs is pleased to present ENCORES, a weekly online series highlighting past performances and recalling the rich history of programming on the historic Folger stage. See a clip of ‘Love’s Labor’s Lost’ from Folger Theatre’s 2019 production.

The witty, fast-paced dialogue at the heart of the battle of the sexes in Love’s Labor’s Lost is straight out of a golden-age screwball comedy film.

Folger Resident Dramaturg and UMBC Associate Professor of English Michele Osherow takes us inside Folger Theatre’s unique production to explore why Shakespeare’s romantic comedy is so perfectly suited to DC in the 1930s.

“What’s especially delightful about Love’s Labor’s Lost is that it’s a comedy about melancholy, a satire on youthful arrogance, intellectual pretension, and romantic naiveté,” writes Austin Tichenor.

Folger Theatre’s ‘Love’s Labor’s Lost’ is set in roughly 1932—the year the Folger Shakespeare Library opened its doors to the public—and celebrates the Folger’s exquisite architecture, as well as the era’s glamorous post-flapper fashion. In its honor, we present a…

Love’s Labor’s Lost is one of three Shakespeare plays without a primary source (the others being A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest), but that doesn’t mean it was created in a vacuum. Using four items from the Folger collection,…

Leonor Fernandez guides you through our pre-production photo shoot to explore how photographer Brittany Diliberto worked with actors Matt Dallal, Zachary Fine, Yesenia Iglesias, Amelia Pedlow, Kelsey Rainwater, and Joshua David Robinson to capture Shakespeare’s sprightly romantic comedy in a…

The Inkhorn Controversy in the 15th and 16th centuries focused on the use of long, Latinate words as opposed to shorter, Saxon-rooted English counterparts.

In Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost, four friends forswear women so that they can focus on their studies. But, of course, as soon as they do, four lovely ladies enter their lives. Oh, what to do? Romance and comedy ensue. Four of our…