Much Ado About Nothing
by William Shakespeare
State Theatre Company.
The Playhouse

In setting events in the Messina of 1890, directors John Gaden and Gale Edwards have made their production of Much Ado About Nothing both impetuously Sicilian and priggishly Victorian; thus recognising the volatility and harshness of Shakespeare’s comedy.

The play is a tangle of slander, spite and cant as Hero, daughter of Leonato, is dishonoured by accusations of infidelity and then spurned in high dudgeon by her gullible …