MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. To 6 January.
London/RSC
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
by William Shakespeare
Novello Theatre To 6 January 2007
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2pm no performance 25 December
Audio-described 30 Dec 2pm
Captioned 6 Jan 2pm
Runs 3hr One interval
TICKETS; 0870 950 0941
www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 December
Rod Dungate’s review of Marianne Elliott’s production from its Stratford-upon-Avon opening is in reviewsgate’s RSC section. The production’s now comfortably housed at the Novello, where even the lighting seems fine. Here are a few additional comments . . .
First, the c1953 Cuba setting arouses more questions for me than it seems to have for others. Much Ado shows love as much a matter of tactics and conflict as the war the men return from at the opening. But which war? “Quelling a rebellion” the programme says, which outs them as supporters of corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista. As props of his repressive regime, they’re at odds with the happy trust that the silver-hair of experience and authority inspires in the play. What’s the difference between happy Beatrice or Benedick and sour Don John if all support a regime of torture and repression?
Tamsin Greig’s intelligent Beatrice, as wasted fanning herself in the heat as she is in the slightly more intellectually demanding put-downs of Benedick, shows her mettle when she takes Hero aside and confidentially tells her to think for herself. As in Taming of the Shrew, there’s the sense of a strong, independent female mind that cannot be accommodated in conventional society and initially wastes itself battling a male before finding a new purpose in an equal relationship.
Benedick is an arrogant male who has something to learn. He places a couple of bananas on his head as horns, in a childish joke. When he draws himself up to leave in dignified fashion, the difficulty of doing this while eating one of the bananas undermines him.
Elliott finds a new way with the women’s eavesdropping scene, when Hero inadvertently catches the hidden Beatrice’s eye and has to look quickly away. These comic scenes, intended to bring people who can’t admit they love each other together, contrast Don John’s unseen tragic plot to split the passionate lovers Hero and Claudio apart. Hero’s servant Margaret, unwittingly involved in this plot, is distressed at discovering her role, though she's soon reintegrated into the happiness.
Dogberry (like his famous descendent Mrs Malaprop) is never as funny in reality as in conception. But Bettie Bourne comes closer than most, thanks to his calmly assured air of certainty and sense of detachment from anyone’s reality but his own.
Don Pedro: Patrick Robinson
Don John: Jonny Weir
Benedick: Joseph Millson
Count Claudio: Adam Rayner
Borachio: Jamie Ballard
Conrade: Geoffrey Lumb
Messenger: Simon Bubb
Boy: Curtis Flowers
Leonato: Nicholas Day
Antonio: Leon Tanner
Hero: Morven Christie
Beatrice: Tamsin Greig
Margaret: Amy Brown
Ursula: Caroline Wildi
Balthasar: Yvette Rochester-Duncan
Dogberry: Bette Bourne
Verges: Steven Beard
Watchmen: Christopher Davies, Curtis flowers, Shane Frater, Sam O'Mahony-Adams
Friar Francis: Patrick Romer
The Sexton: John Heffernan
Director: Marianne Elliott
Designer: Lez Brotherston
Lighting: Neil Austin
Sound: Christopher Shutt, Ian Dickinson
Composer: Olly Fox
Music Director: Gareth Ellis
Movement: Susannah Broughton, Sarah Gorman
Company Voice Work: Jacquie Crago, Charmian Gradwell
Fight director: Alison de Burgh
Assistant director: Alex Sims
2006-12-30 00:24:12