#that LLL is nobody's favorite play and also people keep whitewashing rosaline | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

aq2003 · 2 months ago

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[pulls up a chair w the director of 2015 rsc LLL] wait okay so what do YOU think love's labour's lost is about if you're, like, taking away the play's commentary on race and beauty standards and how that interacts with the wider "frivolity of romance" theme

#i mention the 2015 version bc that's the one i watched but this applies to my bestie (/neg) kenneth branagh As Well #rip guys one of the most interesting parts of the play but like gatekept behind the fact #that LLL is nobody's favorite play and also people keep whitewashing rosaline #love's labour's lost #ws #mm. the whole 'beauteous as ink' line.. 'much in the letters nothing in the praise'..#as in. rosaline agrees with the physical description of herself that berowne describes but not the overwhelming praise of her beauty #and how katherine like. is supposed to have blonde hair and rosy cheeks as opposed to rosaline #and of course that whole tirade where the guys make fun of rosaline for not being fair haired/fair skinned/etc to get back at berowne #there is a SOLID amount of evidence in the text pointing to rosaline being a black woman. like three or four obvious places #and i'm not surprised greg doran picked that up bc his productions are so detail oriented #and he really mines the text for meaning and relevance and everything.#but like he cant be the only person who picked that up.. or at the very least 'read the play and made this connection'#even if you cut all those lines (and i can understand why bc some of them are very very mean spirited)#wouldn't you at least still want to keep with the spirit of the play and not cast her as white ...?#shakespeare didn't have lots of canonically nonwhite characters in his plays.. rosaline is a lead character and the main love interest..#i'm just surprised at the lack of discussion around this. even if it's not as well known or liked as othello or anything

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