MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. To 6 August.

Bath

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
by William Shakespeare

Theatre Royal in rep to 6 August 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm

TICKETS: 01225 448844
www.theatreroyal.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 July

High comedy combined with deep perception.Peter Hall's fine production makes the laughter and sadness integral to all Shakespeare's comedies cohere superbly. Janie Dee's fizzing Beatrice is an active lass, rushing to help open the huge doors as the army returns victorious home to Sicily, while her personality (Dee makes both points about her birth "my mother cried...a star danced" register vividly) thrives on the verbal point-scoring with Benedick. In this role, Aden Gillett gives the most complete, vocally considered performances I've seen from him. It works a treat as both these young people moving to maturity are full of humour and the possibility of affection.

Outstanding RSC productions have emphasised both the play's military/political surrounds and its characters' self-regard. Hall shows the intensity of emotions and the fragility of human relationships, their vulnerability to enemies within a circle of supposed friends - and within the individual psyche.

This isn't just a matter of the 2 pairs of lovers, though Olivia Darnley's Hero, trusting to the point of complacency after a clearly secure childhood, and Claudio's barely post-adolescent intensity both fall immediate victim to Don John's malice, just as their friends' more benevolent stratagems bring Benedick and Beatrice together.

It's clear how effective such trickery is when Benedick first believes Beatrice loves him, his sudden fondness comically contrasted by her stern manner, and shock when he doesn't respond with his usual wit. (Benedick expresses surprise at the 'news' he's loved in a verbal torrent, arguing his feelings with the audience; Dee's Beatrice responds to the equivalent news with silent, wide-eyed amazement). And at the end, both are too much in love to be put off at the revelation of their private amorous confessions.

There's also the fine irony that the truth's discovered by the most stupid characters (if Duke Leonato had listened to the bumbling Watch he might have prevented a lot of trouble). Sam Kelly gives the malapropostic constable Dogberry a dignity not undermined by his belt-clutching, pompous-toned self-importance, while David Acton makes the hirsute Verges a fine sidekick, nodding in agreement with his boss and clutching a roll of documents like a staff of office.

For all his greybeard authority, Philip Voss shows Leonato a true Sicilian when he believes his daughter has behaved dishonourably, pinning her to the ground, crawling and growling like a furious beast. In this society it's hardly surprising an unconventional love doesn't dare speak its name, and it's not just the kiss planted openly on his friend's cheek that marks out Don Pedro's sexuality.

In a performance that contrasts his Victor (in the production's repertory partner Private Lives) Charles Edwards show himself a clear, forceful performer. There's not a trace of the camp about this soldierly figure, but a detached tone of inquiry when he asks Beatrice if she might consider marrying him (he knows she's in no mood to take this tongue-in-cheek question seriously) suggests his emotional detachment. And his sense of frustrated, hardly-contained fury throughout leads naturally to an end where he's left alone (as someone so often is at the end of Shakespearean comedy) when the happy couples rush off to party.

This closing image of Pedro alone in the darkening courtyard of Kevin Rigdon's handsome set (the Rigdons people it with characters in Regency costume: very Peter Hall? certainly very Bath) is a final glimpse of this production's deeply perceptive emotional range.

Leonato: Philip Voss
Beatrice: Janie Dee
Hero: Olivia Darnley
Messenger/Watchman/Sexton: Peter Gordon
Don Pedro: Charles Edwards
Benedick: Aden Gillett
Claudio: Dan Stevens
Don John: Ifan Meredith
Conrade: Kevin Collins
Borachio: Richard Stacey
Antonio: David Barnaby
Margaret: Rachel Bavidge
Ursula: Janet Greaves
Balthasar/Watchman: Jamie Beamish
Dogberry: Sam Kelly
Watchman/Benedick's Servant: Andrew Macklin
Verges/Friar Francis: David Acton

Director: Peter Hall
Designer:/Costume: Kevin Rigdon
Lighting: Peter Mumford
Sound: Gregory Clarke
Composer: Mick Sands
Choreographer: Wayne McGregor
Costume/Associate director: Trish Rigdon

2005-07-26 18:33:36