MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. To 16 August.
Oxford.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
by William Shakespeare.
Creation Theatre Company at Oxford Castle – Unlocked Castleyard To 16 August 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm except 2 Aug 8pm. Gala performance 8 Aug.
Runs 2hr 30min One interval.
TICKETS: 01865766266.
www.creationtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 30 July.
After last year’s Shrew, Creation brings another contrasted female pairing and make it central to this production.
Shakespeare never brings different styles of love closer than they are in Much Ado, where the comedy of Beatrice and Benedict rubs against the near-tragedy of Hero and Claudio.
The comic lovers are brought together beneath their surface enmity by friends contriving fake eavesdroppings. These benign frauds contrast the malign fabrication that makes Claudio think Hero unfaithful. The two stories could hardly come closer than when the love declarations of Beatrice and Benedick lead straight to her command he kill his friend.
The faked evidence against Hero isn’t shown by Shakespeare, but director Charlotte Conquest sensibly includes it. Open-air summer productions attract new audiences for Shakespeare and it can be hard to assimilate everything by word alone, so a glimpse of this important trick is opportune.
Conquest sometimes looks to hold attention with comic business that isn’t funny. Yet a production where word-mangling Watchman Dogberry (Gordon Cooper, pointedly spelling-out the word ‘Security’ on this cap to impress a captive) raises several laughs, must have some sense of humour.
Visual business in the eavesdropping scenes, where the speakers have to make the listener believe they don’t know he (or she) is there, push credibility, as so often, though some might find them, with their watery link (Benedick doused by a watering-can, Beatrice having a shower), delightfully bold.
But the production’s centre is its two main women. Hero doesn’t even have the chance given Hermione in The Winter’s Tale to protest against the false allegations before she’s bundled away and given out for dead.
Olivia Mace’s Hero, loving and innocent, is unprotected against injustice. Her opposite is Lizzie Hopley’s outstanding Beatrice. She’s suffered a lesser betrayal in the past from Benedick and has developed defensive armour. Her voice, moving between scornful and nervy, flutters noticeably as she recalls the occasion.
Hopley shows Beatrice’s lively energy, alertness and nimble imagination suggesting the dancing star under which she was born. Other performances are sometimes good-natured rather than accomplished, though Gregory Cox shows command of verse dialogue, and most add something to a good-natured show that gives a clear, pacy account of this serious comedy.
Don Pedro/Verges: Guy Burgess.
Don John/Dogberry/Balthasar: Gordon Cooper.
Leonato: Gregory Cox.
Margaret/1st Watch: Caroline Devlin.
Claudio/2nd Watch: Tom Golding.
Beatrice: Lizzie Hopley.
Hero: Olivia Mace.
Borachio/Friar/Antonio/Messenger: Kevin Murphy.
Benedick: Nicholas Osmond.
Director: Charlotte Conquest.
Designer: Sara Perks.
Sound: Matt Eaton.
Composer: Pete King.
Singing captain: Caroline Devlin.
Voice/Verse coach: Richard Ryder.
Movement: Aidan Trweays.
2008-08-01 02:36:51