By Ian Diddams
Images by Ian Diddams and Shakespeare Live
Is it post watershed? Then I shall begin… The etymology of the word “Nothing” is quite… interesting… aside from meaning “zero” such as is today, historically it has had other meanings and pronunciations including “noting,” the writing down of musical notes… and in Shakespeare’s era it had another totally different meaning, that being a slang term for female genitalia. So, with this in mind, Will’s comedy about the pursuit of female companionship and the alleged capriciousness of the distaff members of the human species, “Much Ado About Nothing” takes on a somewhat slightly different nuance …
Trawling the web for relative popularity of Shakespeare’s plays holds few surprises with regards which gets performed the most etc. Unsurprisingly maybe “Romeo & Juliet”, “Macbeth” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream” feature highest (google is your friend here), and that trend continues with other “obvious” plays until we reach number seven in the list and “Much Ado About Nothing”, his tale of marital pursuit, deceit, jealousy and spurned love that all comes good in the end. The plot of such a Shakespeare standard needs no explanation here and YouTube can easily fill in the blanks for you, and so we move onto the beautiful background of Cleeve House, Seend, for this week’s performances by “Shakespeare Live.”
Directed by Gill Morell, her vision has set the play in pre–English Civil war times where tensions were rising and families’ split along royalist and parliamentarian lines. This is wonderfully portrayed here with the family’s soldier’s clearly cavaliers, with the opposing Don John and his entourage as parliamentarians. This is perfectly and simply set by some sumptuous costumes revelling in the brightness and pageantry of the Royalists, and the simplistic, wide collared black clothing of the Roundheads. The physical setting is regal too – with Cleeve House as a backdrop to the stage area we feel we really could be back in time, including use of the house’s own windows for the bedroom scene.
The entire play of course is premised on spying and eavesdropping – some for comedic value of course as both Beatrice and Benedick are spoon fed falsehoods as they eavesdrop on the knowing conspirators, but also surreptitious spying in the bedroom scene which in itself is a subterfuge akin to the likes of “Operation Mincemeat”. After all, the first casualty of war is truth.
There are three basic groups of characters in Much Ado – the family, the soldiers, the villagers. The family is portrayed by Alison Paine as a strong Leonata, the matriarch, Jeremy Reece as her brother, Antonio, Sarah Horrex superb as Hero, Leonata’s daughter, the wonderfully tempestuous and feisty niece Beatrice by Phobe Fung, and Kerensa McCondach as Margaret the gentlewoman and erstwhile friend to Hero.
The soldiers are more than well provided by Laurie Parnell as Don Pedro the prince, Peter Emuss as lovestruck Claudio, Oli Beech as Claudio’s best friend and Beatrice’s sparring partner and love-hate interest, Adam Sturges as Balthasar and Napoleon as the sneaky, jealous and conniving Don John, aided and abetted in his fifth column activities by Roger Hames as Borachio and Lucy Perry as Conrad.
That just leaves the villagers made up of the unflappable Simon Reeves as the equally unflappable Father Francis, and of course, the best part of the show (personal opinion here! ) the Watch consisting of Paul Batson as Dogberry, Graham Paton as Verges, Penny Clegg as Seacole, Caroline Emuss as Pyke, and David Morrell as Oatcake,
Tech is provided by the ever resourceful Rich Carter, Alex Latham and Ellen Read, the previously mentioned wonderful costumes by Hermione Skrine, Caren Felton, Helen Holliday and Ellen Williamson, Music by Laurie Parnell. This was all kept running smoothly by the dream team of stage management James Dennis and Connor Palmer.
The play finishes with all loose ends neatly tied up and for those that don’t know the plot, no particular spoilers here though following a brief discourse at the eventual wedding scene I was reminded that as Tina Turner once sang… “We Don’t Need another Hero“
This is a well delivered rendition of Much Ado in a stunning setting – it really doesn’t get any better than this. The show runs all week until July 12th, including a Saturday matinee, and tickets are available from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/shakespearelive
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