Much Ado about Nothing

1:4:9’s production of Much Ado about Nothing was a really clever modern interpretation of Shakespeare’s play. The modern twist was more about the era and setting rather than the flowing language. Punctuated by mainly Madonna songs which were skilfully interwoven with the plot, the music gave a lovely base line to the scenes and scene changes which, along with the creative projections shown on the back wall, gave a really rounded vision of where and what we were seeing. The projections ranged from magazine covers, text message interactions, twitter posts and, my personal favourite, a full wall of security camera footage. My congratulations to the designer of these projections, Emily Catlin, for such a clever use of this application. The set was beautifully basic in design with LED light and fairy lights illuminating individual scenes. Set changes were smooth and practically invisible which is a huge compliment to the backstage team. Overall, the setting of this play, along with the choice of music, was richly supportive of the storyline.

Director Lauren Bracewell managed to coax every element of fun from the dialogue and the organisation and the interpretation of the play was masterly. I just loved every expression, nuance and characterisation that each actor brought to the stage.

To set the scene (and taken directly from the on-line programme) ‘Leonato, legendary founder of fashion empire The House of Leo, is throwing the party of the year at his Sicilian mansion - and the entire fashion world is flocking to Messina. Designers Don Pedro and Benedick return triumphant from a global style tour with rising star model Claudio, while Don Pedro’s disgraced brother,Don John, lurks on the sidelines with paparazzi in tow, ready to stir up scandal.’

Essentially there are 2 couples that might, or might not, get married, but this is all in the lap of the surrounding guests and family members who have their own reasons for mixing things up!

Hero and Claudio, played by Nancy Surridge and Milo Waters, are the enthusiastic young couple ready to marry before gossip intervenes. Nancy was beautifully cast as the young bride. The chemistry between her and Claudio was great to see and her performance was strong throughout. Claudio played his part well as the desperate and vengeful groom but sometimes his voice dipped a bit making it hard to hear his lines. I loved his stag night.

Sara Thompson’s Beatrice, channelling her inner Anna Wintour, had a great time with her part. The ‘overhearing’ scenes for her and Benedick were really amusing and their timing and complete mastery of the chaos surrounding them were fabulous. Benedick was played by Emma Feeney, and provided, for me, my favourite character of the evening. Emma has a wonderful way of interpreting the flowing prose to make it completely understandable and really comprehensible in a modern setting. Each of the moves and inflections hooked us into the storyline until we were left not knowing if the relationship with feisty Beatrice would ever resolve itself. I really enjoyed Emma’s performance.

Leonato and Antonia, as Hero’s father and aunt, were both funny and tragic as they followed the progress and downfall of their Hero’s fortunes. David Waters and Dawn Lipman played these roles with gusto and Antonia’s take down of Claudio for having (potentially) killed her niece was masterly.

Bryony Colton was a wonderful Don Pedro, skilfully manipulating those around her. Her brother Don John, played by Richard Spong, also showed the family trait of manipulation but with evil only in mind. Both had great stage presence and were really dominant in their scenes as befits their roles.

My apologies for not mentioning all the cast members but I will congratulate Amy Hollingsworth, as Balthazar, for her lovely singing voice and composing skills, and the security detail of Gerry Finnegan, Nick Wilkes and Charlie Hood as the lovable rogues, They really enjoyed their interactions.

My congratulations to the props and costumes teams for some great ideas. Where did you get two whole clothes rack of flowery shirts and jackets from? Lighting and sound were spot on, well done. A lot of work goes into making it all seem to be effortless Shanise Garner provided some great choreography and congratulations to Kathryn Waters as Producer who, I feel sure, bore the lions share of the organisation of the show.

My apologies to the Bard for not being able to emulate his beautiful language in my report but it was truly lovely to hear his prose in such capable hands.

Many thanks for a really enjoyable evening.

 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.