Scrap Paper Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost Is a Highly Entertaining Night Out
This article was published by Triangle Review on 16 August 2025.
There is much to say about Scrap Paper Shakespeare's production of Love's Labor's Lost at Durham's Shadowbox Studio. First is that Scrap Paper Shakespeare, a nonprofit (501c3) local theater, founded less than three years ago, is moving right along.
Established in 2022, their seasons include the works of William Shakespeare', lesser-performed classical plays, and original works inspired by classic stories, in the belief that classical theater can and should be accessible "whether you're a Shakespeare pro or you slept through high school English class." Their productions are often staged in small venues, where audiences sit just a few feet from the action, making them uniquely suited to introducing teenagers and newcomers to the real mechanics of live theater.
Love's Labor's Lost is one of Shakespeare's earliest comedies, written in the mid-1590s. The plot follows King Ferdinand of Navarre (Collins Wilson) and his three lords -- Dumaine (Caleb van Doornewaard), Longaville (Cole Goodnight), and Berowne (Ben Apple) -- who take an oath to avoid women and devote themselves to study and fasting for three years. Their vows are immediately tested by the arrival of the Princess of France (Maya Noor) and her attendants -- Rosaline (Jacqueline Nunweiler), Katherine (Zoe Matley), and Maria (Cassidy Petrykowski). The men, undone by desire, quickly find themselves rationalizing their way out of their oath. The ending is untraditional for a comedy and seems to lay the road for a sequel. Interestingly, there is evidence that a lost play, entitled Love's Labour's Won, may have existed with this in mind.
Scrap Paper Shakespeare artistic director Emma Szuba reimagines Navarre's court as a modern-day college campus. The setting is simple -- just a couch, a chair, and a whiteboard, scribbled with equations and notes related to the men's oath. By stripping down the set, Szuba lets Shakespeare's language do the heavy lifting, while contemporary details infuse the production with immediacy and humor, seamlessly merging Elizabethanwit with 21st-century cyberculture.
The cast's work is uneven, but often delightful. The standout is Ben Apple as Berowne, who delivers Shakespeare's dense verse with the clarity, rhythm, and naturalism of a seasoned professional. Rather than coming off as recitations, his speeches sound like thoughts forming in real time, a rare and impressive feat in Shakespeare performance. Similarly, Maya Noor's Princess and Jacqueline Nunweiler's Rosaline bring poise and precision to their roles, handling the language with confidence and intelligence.
Caleb van Doornewaard is adorable as Dumaine. His boyish energy and timing evoke Gaten Matarazzo's lovable "Dustin" from Stranger Things. Van Doornewaard also doubles as Nathaniel, where his quirky earnestness adds comic flair. In one of the evening's highlights, he strums a guitar and sings his Shakespearean lines to the tune of Oasis' 1995 hit "Wonderwall" -- a cheeky touch that captures the production's balance of reverence and playfulness.
Another memorable turn comes from Mason Cordell, who doubles as Boyet and Costard. As Boyet, the Princess' flamboyant courtier, Cordell channels the energy of a high-profile PR manager, attending to the ladies like a social-media handler for Internet influencers.
Not all the casting choices work as smoothly. Liz Howard as Don Adriano de Armado and Zoe Wright as Moth make for an odd pairing. Shakespeare's Armado is a pompous, self-styled, alpha-male wannabe; yet Howard's casting muddles that dynamic in this staging, leaving the characterization somewhat confusing. Zoe Matley, in dual roles as Dull and Katherine, leans heavily into exaggerated physical comedy -- sometimes to good effect, though occasionally overwhelming for the Shadowbox Studio's intimate space.
Despite these inconsistencies, the production succeeds in marrying 17th-century language with a contemporary sensibility. Dumaine's T-shirt emblazoned with "I Got That Dog in Me," Armado's "Education before Fornication" shirt, the podcast hosted by Holofernes (Cole Goodnight) and Nathaniel (van Doornewaard), the Princess reading a copy of Hamlet's Blackberry, playing "Everybody Talks" by the Neon Trees during intermission -- the audience chuckled knowingly at all the Easter eggs woven throughout.
Technically, the production is modest but effective. Lighting and sound were straightforward, never distracting. The minimalism, rather than feeling underdeveloped, reinforced the company's scrappy ethos: that Shakespeare's plays don't need elaborate sets or budgets to come alive.
By rooting Shakespeare's comedy in a modern collegiate environment, Scrap Paper Shakespeare highlights the universality of themes, such as ambition, love, deception, and adherence to the notion that "society is the happiness of life." For high school students, aspiring actors, or anyone looking for an engaging entry point into classical theater, this company offers an ideal introduction -- not to mention a highly entertaining night out.
