INTERVIEW: Luke Thompson (of Bridgerton fame) and newcomer Melanie-Joyce Bermudez on why their Love’s Labour’s Lost at the RSC is a must-see.

Luke: Yes it’s amazing, because I’ve loved shows from the RSC. Auditions would come through, but I just wouldn't get them!But it’s great in the Love’s Labour’s Lost company because it’s a lot of the cast’s debut at the RSC. In the rehearsal room there’s this real freshness; and also fact that it’s the new season with a new artistic directors adds to the excitment.You feed off the vibe; we’re a very fresh company and that’s a huge strength. We are tacking all these preconceive notions around the work together. Some of us have experience of Shakespeare and some haven’t – so it’s great and really exciting.

So same question, MJ. How, how did it fell coming to the RSC?

MJ: Funnily enough, my relationship with classical work only solidified when I went to drama school. It was something that felt very foreign to me when I initially embarked on my journey into acting, so it came as a surprise to me that in my professional career it only has been Shakespeare so far. That has been amazing because that would have never have occurred to me in my wildest dreams.

How did that start? How did Shakespeare find you?

MJ: My first encounter with Shakespeare was when I did something called the Open Door programme, which provides free drama school auditions for those from low income backgrounds. And so when I began that I was like I’m not very good at this, I don’t understand this iambic stuff. And then I actually found that it sat easier in my body than most contemporary texts, which really really surprised me. And so when I went to RADA – I was fortunate enough to get in on my first try – I was terrified because I thought, why am I at this institution that’s known for its classical work but... I had the pleasure of working with wonderful, wonderful teachers who made me feel like Shakespeare belonged to me.

You both went to RADA, but at different times?

MJ: I graduated six months ago.Luke: So yeah, very different times – ten years difference. I did an English and drama degree at Bristol, then went to RADA, I graduated in 2013.

Wow, you’ve been busy in six months, MJ. Including working with Branagh [in King Lear last year], how was that?

He was formerly the president of RADA, until only recently. It’s a tradition at RADA that you perform a Shakespeare for the president. We only got about three days’ notice. I was like yeah, I’ll just do something from Lear, and I always do Cordelia because I look about 12... Then after multiple rounds was very surprised to be offered Reagan. I thought I'd have to wait another decade.

What got you into acting, was there a childhood moment?

Luke: I think for me I realised I quite liked lying. For me, rather than like any sort of seminal experience or Damascene conversion, it just seemed to suit how my brain works. I don’t really know why. When I’m walking around in real life, I fell like I’m slightly spectating on myself. And I’m sure everyone feels that to a certain extent. But what’s lovely about being on stage is that I outsource that to someone else, so I feel much calmer.MJ: When I began acting, like Luke said, it fitted. I didn’t understand because I was supposed to be quite academic. My family wanted me to do any of the obvious options: engineering, medicine, law… Law probably the one that I was most likely to go down, but it just didn’t click. And luckily acting found me at a great time.Luke: Actors are sort of like lawyers, advocating for something.

Love’s Labour’s Lost seems quite a convoluted play from the outside, can you say what it’s about in a nutshell?

Luke: It’s funny though, because there is an extravagance in the details, but actually the gambit is actually very straightforward. It’s basically four guys who decide to give up women; they fast and sleep less and isolate themselves for three years in order to devote themselves to study and to self-improvement.The problem is that one of them happens to be the King of Navarre and what he’s forgotten is that actually they’ve already organised for women, one of which is a princess, to come and to talk to them to resolve a debate around some land. And there’s actually not really much more to it than that. The joy of the play actually is that from then on it’s all just about… [pauses stuck for a word...]MJ: The exploration of how these people do it.Luke: I know we don’t like to go on about Covid – but actually when a group of people that go ‘right, these are the new rules now by which we exist’, there is scope for comedy, anxiety and drama when they can’t talk to women. That’s why Shakespeare’s so brilliant… Because it starts off as that, but then actually becomes almost about the mechanics of romance, about what being real means, how we protect ourselves, and our relationship to other people and to love. It ends up being about all sorts of things, but fundamentally the premise is really straightforward.

It does seem to have very modern topics and seems made for the age of Instagram, why do you think it’s not done more often?

Luke: There is something very Elizabethan about the context of it, but one of the powers of this production is that our director Emily [Burns] has really found a way to find a context for it. Usually the hyperrealism and language sees it get an Elizabethan setting or Oxford students, studying for three years. But our concept lifts it out of that.Yes it’s got its challenges. Like the challenge with Macbeth is everyone’s seen it a thousand times. The challenge is how do you find the right context to set it alight? And Emily’s done that.So it’s set on an island and they are tech billionaires.Luke: That’s right. The four guys are tech billionaires.

Hmm, so the play features lots of letters moving the plot around – but mobile phones potentially can wreck a storyline. How does that tech work in the play? Do they surrender their mobiles?!

Luke: Genuinely you will have to come and see the play and find out. That has been thought about!

It’s like with a horror film, if only they had a mobile phone they could call the cops and it would be over!

Luke: I know what you’re saying, but I also think Shakespeare’s not literal. He’s not interested in in literal reality, it’s a bit more lifted, more poetic. And I actually think the plays operate a bit more like dreams.Like of course Romeo could have sent the text and it all be fine, but that’s almost like quite a silly thing to say because that’s not the point – that’s too literal-minded; it’s about exploring what it feels like to be in love, what it means to be young and the anxiety of death.

The marketing image feels like an Instagram shot. Can you tell me about the production’s aesthetic?

Luke: I think the play is interesting in terms of anxiety around relationships, which again feels very modern. The journey of the play is men and women trying to understand each other and to work out what’s real. With Instagram, for example, it’s just another performance, like people have always done it. Whether you’re writing a sonnet or texting – you’re not really being you. It’s all because we’re quite scared of direct contact, and the play is all about forced direct contact and how you deal with.In terms of the setting, the idea, like with a lot of the comedies, is it happens in this sort of fantasyland, where the fantasy gets popped. The island has an air of unreality about it; we’re on an island off Polynesia somewhere… And then the women bring in something a bit more sort of real.

There’s often an emphasis on self-improvement on digital platforms like Instagram. Is that something the production taps into and scrutinises?

MJ: I think my experience of the play is there’s validity in any kind of self-improvement, there’s just different ways of going about: different areas of focus and realities. As much as people might go ‘Oh God, look at these men thinking they’re all that’… There is a genuine desire for self-improvement, and to work at your full form.In our production, I think the women coming, especially in the context that Emily has chosen, shows the weight of real life matters, and how that can actually help people and shift people’s mindsets when even though they are on a positive and fruitful road to self-improvement there are other things that can contextualise that.Luke: And I also think where Shakespeare is so good is that death is never far away, and I think a lot of self-improvement is about an anxiety around death. We’re very uncomfortable around death. We don’t like the idea of it. We like to pretend that we’re going to live forever. There’s a sort of futility. Shakespeare won’t let us off the hook about that. And I think Love’s Labour’s Lost is probably one of the best examples of that: the games that we play in the shadow of death and the actual reality.No spoilers, but the play ends in a particular way! I will say that I’ve never seen a romantic comedy that ends in this way – and it’s amazing.

And I just wanted to talk about your characters. So Luke, tell me about your Berowne?

Luke: I always find this difficult to answer that because for me, there are words on the page, I’m not necessarily in control of who Berowne is, I don’t make that many decisions about him. I guess one of the things I will say is that I think it’s a really interesting examination of male pride. And men sort of struggling with that, which I think again goes back how modern the play is. Men, particularly white straight men, quite rightly have been given a lot of stick lately. And part of the tension is the men’s way of handling things. ‘Right, what do you want us to do, apologise and move on?’ When actually I think what a lot of people are saying are like, ‘No, just pipe down for a bit’. Fundamentally it’s saying just shut up and listen for a bit.You can’t solve everything and you can't be on top of everything, and I think there's something I find interesting about the way the text works and that idea of Berowne – the way the words want to be on top of what they're describing, but failing. I know that sounds quite esoteric. For me a character is an illusion that the audience spots rather than me telling you about Berowne, who is words on a page.

And the Princess, she has quite a lot of lines, so she’s quite a character.

MJ: It’s a pleasure and joy to play her. Similar to Luke, it’s very difficult to know how my interpretation of the Princess will transpire, but I can go simply based on the text. She is intelligent, steadfast, compassionate and loyal. And that’s basically it. She says what she means and means what she says. She wears her heart on her sleeve and has a way with words.

Last question, why should people come and see the production?

Luke: I think people should come and see it because it’s a really sexy, interesting, moving and funny exploration of something very modern, and I think people will be very surprised about quite how relevant and immediate it will feel.

MJ: Copy that!