Canadian
theatre 
Image Gallery The Compleat Works of Love
David Bloom and Linda Quibell
The Compleat Works of Love was first produced at Station Street Arts Centre in Vancouver in 1994. A rewritten version, The (truly) Compleat Works of Love, was presented the next year at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, and went on tour to Whistler, Lamloops and Winnipeg. The show revolves around a giant bed, an end table with candles and the collected works of William Shakespeare. (Another adaptation that deals with love, or something that looks like it from further away, is The Comedy of Eros.)
"The Compleat Works of Love investigates sex and love in the modern world through language torn raw and breathing from Shakespeare. Its a sensual encounter between the mythic spirits of Man and Woman, a lusty, violent exploration of passion. The Compleat Works combines blank verse with a hip sensuality and modern ballroom dance to create a uniquely modern take on love. Playwrights Bloom and Quibell were intrigued by the argument at the heart of Ted Hughes' Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being––that throughout the canon, but especially the later works, Shakespeare has woven a 'myth' that functions as an archetypal plot for tragedy. That is, the myth of the Great Goddess and the Goddess-destroying god. What better way to test the theory than to take the entire works of Shakespeare and begin carving away bit by bit, until all that is left are two characters and a tale of lust, betrayal, anger, murder and redemption? From the youthful passion of Romeo and Juliet to the restorative love of The Winter's Tale, with side excursions through the sonnets and the dramatic poetry, The Compleat Works is an attempt to forge a fragile understanding of the dance between Man and Woman" (http://infotec.capcollege.bc.ca/student/99-00/studentsites/jnielsen/felix_culpa/prodhist/compleat.htm).
Video Clip: "Man and woman with bed."
