A new era has dawned at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and if the "first production is anything to go by, it's going to be a bright one", said Fiona Mountford in The i Paper. To launch their tenure, the RSC's new artistic directors, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey, have chosen "Love's Labour's Lost". This infrequently revived comedy is a "quietly audacious choice for an opening salvo" – and it pays off handsomely.
Directed by Emily Burns, the production is set in the modern day, in a luxury wellness retreat in the Polynesian Islands, said Holly O'Mahony in The Stage – which proves an ideal location for Shakespeare's tale of attempted abstinence and lovelorn longings. "High-spirited and oozing sparky chemistry", this is a "laugh-a-minute delight".
"Love's Labour's Lost", about four young aristocrats who swear off women, is a tricky play to pull off, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian, with its strained wordplay, convoluted subplots and "too inevitable" resolution.
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But with a fizzing cast led by Bridgerton's Luke Thompson and some terrific physical comedy, this production is an "air-punching" joy, said Sarah Crompton on What's on Stage. Burns brings an extra contemporary twist by making the four friends "tech-bro billionaires"; there are strong "White Lotus" vibes to Joanna Scotcher's gorgeous set; and the text has been nicely trimmed, and given some modern interpolations, to create a "relaxed, fast-talking vibe". But the "real pleasure comes from the way the production mines Shakespeare's language to discover new resonance and humour". In this "wonderfully calibrated" staging, each moment lands "with thoughtful precision".
It's superbly cast, too, said Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph. Thompson "oozes charm" as Berowne, Ioanna Kimbook compels as the aloof, amused Rosaline, and there are cracking comic performances everywhere you look – notably Jack Bardoe's "strutting hoot of a Spaniard Don Armado", and Tony Gardner's mania-tinged pedant Holofernes. What a great start; keep it up.
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon (01789-331111). Until 18 May
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