Students Show Love For Shakespeare Not Lost

Thursday 6 April 2006

The Shakespeare on Avon Festival will be coming to University of Newcastle next month, giving the public a sneak preview of William Shakespeare's, Love's Labour's Lost.

Produced by the University of Newcastle's Conservatorium, School Drama, Fine Art and Music, Love's Labour's Lost is a 1930s adaptation of the romantic comedy originally set in the royal court of 16th Century France.

The university students will star in three performances to be held in the Drama Studio at the Callaghan campus on April 11, 12 and 13 as an appetizer to the main attraction to be staged at the Shakespeare on Avon Festival in Gloucester.

The adaptation will open the play up to a wider contemporary audience and reveal a delightful comedy with wonderful stage poetry about the lure of love. Love's Labour's Lost focuses on the constant yearnings of adolescents and the on-going battle of the sexes. It is ideal for a young student audience and performers who naturally convey youth's excesses.

The play is a stunning verbal comedy which follows four young men who have pledged to renounce women in an attempt to focus on academic pursuits. But when confronted by four beautiful young women, what results, is confusion, heartbreak and frivolity.

The Shakespeare on Avon Festival, in its eighth year will be held on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 May. This success story has become a major event on the regional tourism calendar and 2006 is proving to be another big year for Shakespearean enthusiasts and the community alike.

For further information or booking enquiries for the Callaghan performances, contact the Drama Office on (02) 4921 5001.

For comment please contact the Director, Carl Caulfield on (02) 4921 5005.