'Much Ado About Nothing' by William Shakespeare
9 September 2022
It was very strange to be taking our seats to watch a Shakespeare comedy just as we heard the news of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. We were at the Curzon Cinema at Milton Keynes Gallery to see the NT Live broadcast of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ from the National Theatre in London. National Theatre Artistic Director Rufus Norris appeared on screen, wearing a black tie, to announce that the show would go ahead, following a minute’s silence and the playing of the national anthem. It felt like a hand-brake turn to then launch into Simon Godwin’s screwball comedy production of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, set in an Art Deco hotel in 1930s Italy. Simon Godwin is one of my favourite theatre directors (see, for example, my review of his National Theatre production of George Bernard Shaw's 'Man and Superman' in May 2015). His ‘Much Ado’ started as very broad comedy, with Katherine Parkinson’s Beatrice and John Heffernan’s Benedick milking every line for laughs. But as the play turned darker the pathos was all the more affecting for its contrast with the earlier pantomime clowning and both the leads were very moving as well as funny. This ensemble performance also included impressive and very believable performances from Eben Figueiredo as Claudio, David Judge as Don John and Phoebe Horn as Margaret. And David Flynn’s blend of dimness, slapstick and a hint of being slightly more knowing than he first appeared made his Dogberry more genuinely funny than usual.
posted by Robin Simpson @ 10:34 am
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