Week of Theater (addendum): Much Ado About Nothing

I wound up getting a ticket to Much Ado About Nothing at the Shakespeare Theatre for a bit after my week of theater, but "Barb's Month of Theater" didn't seem quite right. Anyway, I love Much Ado. It was actually the first Shakespeare that I saw when not forced to in a classroom. A friend and I randomly rented the Emma Thompson/Kenneth Branagh movie back in high school, and I just fell in love.


Director Ethan McSweeny decided to set the show in 1930s Cuba. I always kind of side-eye updates of Shakespeare; no matter how much the setting might work thematically, the actors are still speaking Shakespeare's language, which is not really how people in Nazi Germany (or wherever) sounded. But I really felt like it worked. Maybe it's that the language of the play itself is more prose-y than a lot of Shakespeare's other plays. The set was gorgeous and the costumes fab. Loved all of it.

My main problems were with the play itself, not any of the acting choices or direction or performance. If you're not familiar with the plot, it tells the story of two couples--Beatrice and Benedick, whose relationship is all about the banter, and Hero and Claudio, the young lovers (i.e., they don't actually talk, just decide that they're in love). Everyone knows that Beatrice and Benedick would be perfect for each other, so their friends convince the couple that the other is in love with the other. Meanwhile, the villain of the piece for no actual reason endeavors to break up Claudio and Hero by having Claudio see a girl who looks like Hero get it on with one of the villain's friends.

I just can't get over how big a jerkhole Claudio is. He immediately believes that it's Hero (although, in fairness, he barely knows her). Instead of confronting her immediately, he decides to wait until the wedding ceremony to publicly shame her. And man, does he! He just goes on and on about how she's a whore. And then he's all joking around later! He totally sucks. And Leonato, Hero's father, isn't much better. After Claudio denounces her (backed up, in fairness, by Don Pedro, a prince), Leonato doesn't believe Hero's protests and joins in the speeches about how Hero is a total slut and has shamed him. Seriously, you just want to get up and smack them around. If I were Hero, after this, I wouldn't want Claudio. Why would I marry a guy so quick to believe the worst of me?

My other problem is the clown of the piece, Dogberry. He's the local constable, who overhears the villain's henchmen discussing the set-up of Hero. I just find him incredibly tiresome. He's the key to resolving the plot, so it's not like you can just cut his scenes; and people do really seem to find them funny. But...I don't know. I could live without the annoying interrogation scene.

That being said, I really enjoyed it. The scene when Benedick overhears Claudio, Leonato, and Don Pedro discuss how much Beatrice loves Benedick was hilarious. Incredibly well-staged, fantastic acting from everyone...just perfect. I honestly couldn't ask for more from that scene.

In close-up pictures, Derek Smith and Kathryn Meisle look a bit older than how I picture Benedick and Beatrice, but I was in the nosebleeds, so it wasn't an issue. But across the board, the acting was great, and the feel of the piece was exactly right.

I confess that I spent a lot of the show wanting to see the David Tennant/Catherine Tate version...and then I found out that I can download it! YAY!!!! And so now I want to watch it, even though I just watched a live production.

Good thing it's such a good play.