““This is a fun production, where the darkness of the plot seemed to be an irritation”
Con Nats
3.5 /5 Beards
If you’re going to do another Shakespeare in this day and age, you really need to put some sort of original spin on it. The National London Theatre has ensured this by giving director Simon Godwin another turn with the bard, with this energetic production of probably Shakespeare’s funniest romantic-comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.
This time the play is set on the Italian Riviera during the 1930s in the Hotel Messina. You know you’re in for a big budget production when it opens with a swing-playing band on the second floor of a revolving set. And two of the stars are Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd) as Beatrice and John Heffernan (Dracula) as Benedict.
This is the story of instant love, sabotage, deception and two people falling into the love they’ve been resisting for so long. Hero (Ioanna Kimbrook) and Claudio (Eben Figueiredo) are the star crossed lovers who try and bring Beatrice and Benedik together, while evil brother Don John (David Judge) undermines their wedding by tricking his brother into believing his wife is a floozy. (These marriage-at-first-sight relationships will always be rocky.)
There’s lots of witty banter and also slapstick in this play. The scene where Benedik drops on his friends in an ice cream trolley is hilarious. The comic mispronunciations, led by Dogberry (David Fynn) also produces laughs and some tumbleweeds.
I’m no Shakespeare aficionado, but I’m told the hardest scene to deliver is the one where Beatrice and Benedik profess their love for each other. Parkinson and Heffernan do a good job, without producing much passion. There isn’t much chemistry. The other contentious scene is the wedding, where the script calls for a brutal slap of the bride. Thankfully, it’s been downgraded to a hardy shake.
The large cast is of high quality, with Kimbrook and Figueiredo overcoming the incongruity of London accents with their chemistry. Only Rufus Wright as Leonato was weak; but his character is difficult to navigate out of caricature. David Fynn as Hotel Security, channels Ricky Gervais and gives his all.
The set is excellent, with lots of pastels and colours of the times. And the swing band are on song. There’s no point critiquing the script, only the intent of revisiting something that glorifies outdated gender roles. Godwin has gone for the spectacle rather than introspection. This is a fun production, where the darkness of the plot seemed to be an irritation. The dance sequences, the five piece swing band and revolving set had me from the beginning, and the big dance sequence in the end shows Shakespeare understood the importance of a big finish before Bollywood did. I’m sure there’s an Indian production waiting to be made.
Con Nats, On The Screen
