Globe Theatre's "Love's Labour's Lost" coming to Ann Arbor

Dromgoole admits that this visceral engagement is easier to achieve at the Globe, which opened in 1997 and was built to replicate the experience theatergoers had in Shakespeare’s time.

“You’ve got 600 people standing in the yard, and you’ve got 900 people sitting down in three tiers, and they’re sitting on fairly horrible wooden benches,” explained Dromgoole. “And because of that … they’re very alert, and they’re very alive, and they give a lot of energy into the play, rather than sitting back and going to sleep, and letting the play come to them. And anything we can do to replicate that sense of event, that sense of excitement, we try to bring off when we go on tour.”

The way they do that is by keeping the lights on in the audience, planting musicians in the crowd, and direct address, among other means. And while Dromgoole knows these choices often challenge modern theatergoers, who may initially be resistant, he thinks the result is a more mutually satisfying experience for the performers and the crowd.

“It’s much more that everyone’s sharing together to make something exciting happen,” said Dromgoole. “You try not to make it bullying or coercive, so it’s not mad children’s party entertainers coming out and screaming, ‘You will have fun!’ at the audience. … It’s much more about a collective act of the imagination, and a collective act of intelligence … rather than a panto.”

“Love’s Labour’s Lost” is one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, telling the story of a young king and his three courtiers who vow to forgo, for three years, women and other worldly pleasures for the sake of scholarship. Almost immediately, however, the lovely princess of France arrives with three ladies-in-waiting, and the men go back on their promise and set out to woo the women.

“One great thing about it is that it’s got a girl gang in the center of it who are very strong and very empowered,” said Dromgoole. “It’s very rare in Shakespeare. Usually, you’ve got a woman alone, or a woman with a friend, but they’re normally rather isolated behind or beside these ranks of testosterone-filled men. So with this one, you’ve got four women who come on and really dominate the stage, and that sets up a fantastically different dynamic to any other Shakespeare play. It’s wonderfully subversive.”

Even so, the comedy’s references to events and jokes that are specific to its time have traditionally made it difficult to unpack for modern audiences, so the play is seldom produced.

“It’s probably not as locked in its own moment as academics like to say it is,” said Dromgoole. “In the same way, in Chekhov, you’ve got people talking about a samovar. But you get to immediately understand what a samovar is, and you can then understand why they’re making such a fuss over it in the first act of ‘Three Sisters.’ In same way, with ‘Love’s Labours Lost,’ it’s full of the texture of life at that moment, and you can quite easily fall into that and see what the relationships are, and what the textures are, and become very beguiled by that. So that’s what you do is you play the texture of that life.”

Ann Arbor is the first stop on the company’s North American tour, which mostly hits college towns. Because of the play’s focus on young people playing at love, this seems fitting; but Dromgoole points out another source of the play’s potential appeal to young people.

“Nothing that David Mamet’s written can approach its pyrotechnical, imaginative filth,” said Dromgoole of the play. “And if you can unlock that … then, a lot of it comes alive. Because that’s what the audience of the time heard immediately and got.”

So although many of us have been to our share of Shakespeare comedies that didn’t make us laugh, Dromgoole never, while directing “Love’s,” lost sight of this goal.

“If we’re not making it funny,” he said, “then there’s not much point in doing it.”

“Love’s Labour’s Lost” Who: London’s Globe Theater, presented by the University Musical Society. What: Early Shakespeare comedy about a young king and his three courtiers, who swear off women for the sake of scholarship for three years, only to immediately go back on their vow. Where: Power Center, 121 Fletcher St. When: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., Oct. 20-25 only. How much: $26-$60. Info: Call 734-764-2538, visit the UMS web site or go to the League Ticket Office at 911 N. University Ave.

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.