Despite not always hitting the mark, Chelsea Walker’s Much Ado About Nothing offers a pleasant if unremarkable take on one of Shakespeare’s most incisive romantic comedies.
Much Ado About Nothing begins with Don Pedro’s army returning from a victorious war to sun-soaked Messina, a place of style and status where image is everything. Despite its idyllic setting, fake news, secrets and chicanery rule the day.
Also thriving is an ongoing battle of hearts and wits between long-time frenemies, the barbed Beatrice and hubristic Benedick. Beatrice has sworn off men: “I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me,” she declares early on in the play. Nevertheless, there’s something about her sparring partner Benedick that she just can’t let go of.
At the same time, another courtship is blossoming between Claudio, a soldier, and Hero, Leonato’s young daughter. Marriage is in the offing. However, Hero is ditched at the altar by Claudio when the nefarious Don John conspires a plot to make her seem unfaithful.
Although there are some pacing issues in the first half, Walker’s direction is a masterclass in smooth storytelling. There is a lot of hiding and deception in Much Ado About Nothing, and Walker effectively uses the space of the Globe to emphasise this. One outstanding moment includes Benedick tucking himself in with the audience groundlings, using their theatre programmes to hide his face as some of the play’s other characters gossip about him.
Composed by Angus MacRae, there is a clever use of music throughout this production of Much Ado About Nothing. This is especially effective with the subtle underscore of sinister drums on Don John’s entrance, and the use of a single melancholy cello performance as a soil-covered Claudio stays overnight at Hero’s grave.
This is complemented by choreography by Glynn MacDonald, as the cast in dark sunglasses move gently in unison before Hero’s funeral, and a more sinister dance is provided for the masquerade where the characters reveal their darker hidden identities behind animal masks.
Ken Nwosu is endearing as Benedick, but it is Pippa Nixon as the no-nonsense, fiery Beatrice who really lights up every scene she is in with an utterly intoxicating performance. Adam Long is charming as the fixer Don Pedro. Along with his partner in crime, Marlowe Chan-Reeves as a misled Borachio, Joseph Potter is suitably slippery as the conniving Don John. Despite the limiting written tropes of her character, Assa Kanouté manages to play a multifaceted Hero, and is well matched with a charismatic Joshua John as her duped lover Claudio.
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