Venue Magazine on Much Ado About Nothing, 25 June 2004
Review: Much Ado About Nothing
British Touring Shakespeare set their outdoor 'Much Ado' circa 1830, and the characters were in Jane Austen-style garb, adding to the play's courtly, mannered atmosphere. Benedicke (Miles Gregory) and Beatrice (Daisy Douglas) were, fittingly, two of the linchpins - he high-spirited and puppyish, she saucy and contrary - and Benedicke's own metaphorosis from voluable court jester to aggrieved, dignified suitor was especially well handled.
Daniel Fisher's Don John was suitably lugubrious but didn't carry quite enough villainous zeal; that responsibility went to Adam Rayner's excellent Borachio, a much more credible fire-starter with his louche delivery and swaggering gait. Hero (Devon Black) was more high-spirited and less mimsy than usual, which made her a better conspirator but less of the pure-hearted, simpering bride, while Dogberry and Verges got laughs by the barrowload as a shuffling, slapstick double act in modern police uniform.
The play's dark heart was kept to a minimum - Hero's 'funeral' featured some engaging close harmonies that drew some of the evening's biggest laughs, while her reintroduction was made up as a 'Blind Date' spoof, complete with a trio of curtseying brides for Claudio to choose from. This being outdoor theatre, a fair few phrases were lost on the wind, and more could have been done to enhance the sound, be it a raised stage, the odd mic or better voice projection from a few of the cast. In the main, though, good-humoured, punchy al fresco fare.
Steve Wright
