Much Ado About Nothing, National Theatre, London
1930s. Italian Rivera. A family run hotel. Shakespeare! Comedy and romance.
This production didn’t quite gel for me — Katherine Parkinson as Beatrice seemed a bit flat. Her sparring with her counterpoint Benedict, John Heffernan, was very good — but he seemed to be doing all the work to make their relationship believable. She seemed somewhat emotionless, and overall the production was a bit surface — sparkle and dazzle on the outside, but lacking depth in some of the characters, the main ones especially.
The setting puzzled me as the play seemed to start half-way in and the audience were silent (even at funny bits) — unsure whether to laugh or not. There was some great use of physical comedy — but the production seemed to rely on physical comedy rather than the words too, to get the play going.
There were also odd quirks — I couldn’t work out when it was set. I guessed 1950s, but it turns out 1930s! Benedict and many of the other men seemed to be a United Nations of military — but I couldn’t work out why so many troops would be floating around an Italian hotel, so guessed post-World War Two! Margaret the maid seemed to be a time traveller, in distinctly 2022 summer wear on the beach and a diversion into the 1950s at another point, before jumping back again into the right era (with everyone else).
The minor characters shone in this production. Dogberry and his motley crew of nightwatchmen (early local police) were brilliant as Hugh Oatcake became Boatface; Georgina Seacole dealt with local ne'er-do-wells brilliantly and Dogberry talked at length in incomprehensible long words to impress his superiors.
Physical comedy in the form of Benedict hiding behind sun loungers, in an ice cream cart and returning to talk covered in ice cream and toppings, as well as falling (painfully) out of a hammock were well done. Beatrice rejects an offer of marriage from Don John and so he hatches a plan to convince Beatrice and Benedict that they are in love with each other, through overheard staged conversations! (Beatrice and Benedict have been snarking at each other for years). Equally Beatrice climbs up on a balcony to eavesdrop and fights an attendant for their clothes in a beach hut to get her disguise and eavesdrop closer still.
Dance lessons should be sort from Jack Absolute Flies Again (also showing at the same theatre!) Strangely although it’s a masked ball — Beatrice wears more of a hat than a mask and has a hideous dress, (despite having a great wardrobe at all other times and starting out in a glamourous sequined dressing gown!)
Instead much time can be taken to admire Hero’s beautiful gown, and really Hero is the hero of this play. The hotel owner’s daughter, she falls sweetly in love and is shyly, tenderly betrothed to Claudio. She is also contrasted with Beatrice, who is older and independent of her aunt and uncle’s control, whilst Hero obediently follows what she is told to do, think and say, at all times, by her father and family. Due to a plot and impersonation by her sex mad maid Margaret, Hero is apparently ‘shown’ to be adulterously betraying her husband to be and shamed in public by the testimony of men, even though she protests her innocence. No-one seeks to listen or hear her side of things. Hero finding her voice and courage to finally answer back was powerfully and movingly rendered, and Ioanna Kimbrook really brough Hero to life. The sense of injustice was real and her fainting in shock was more of an unjust emotional collapse and anger, of disbelief. Hurrah too for the Priest, Friar Francis, who protected and defended Hero against her brutally chastising father (yet another man not listening!), and was really the only man to stand up for Hero in this society, devising a sensible plan to test her former lover’s affections and discover the truth of the matter. Beatrice’s allying with her cousin could have been done more strongly at this time.
There is a subplot about the nightwatch crew overhearing the conspirators boasting about how they have conned everyone, getting arrested with a very stout rope and being investigated, which brings Hero’s innocence to light. (Hero and her family pretend that she is dead to get the truth out). Beatrice gets Benedict on side and wants him to sort out Hero’s former intended. But all’s well that ends well as Claudio is persuaded to marry a cousin of the apparently dead Hero — who is a copy of her! Veiled ladies emerge and encircle, and it is the real Hero who arrives to marry Claudio (and put him in his place because he was cruel).
Though beautiful to look at, a light and airy moving set, and lots of dazzle, as a whole it just didn’t gel for me, although the disturbing parts of the play and shifts in tone are navigated well. But much to enjoy in an excellent Benedict, an evil Don Pedro (who I wish had been given more stage time); the wonderful Lady Justice (with a fur stole), and Rufus Wright as Hero’s father, Leonato. Truly it is Hero herself in this version who lights up the stage - she is a stronger presence than Beatrice. Plus enjoy Hero’s beautiful dress. (I may also have been spoilt by Kenneth Branagh's bright and breezy film version of the play!)
