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 swain, Claudio. Sorting out this kerfuffle is a tortuous business and the play wouldn’t be worth the trouble if it weren’t for the parallel plot concerning the reluctant lovers, Beatrice and Benedick. Their stormy and extremely wordy courtship amidst all this distrust, cynicism and ado ends in a marriage of true and enlightened .minds and a confirmation of themes of order and accord.
The directors recognise both the strength and perils of Much Ado. It has elaborate wit, dramatic subtlety and splendid characterisation. It also has a plot line that could anaesthetise an audience in the first five minutes. The State production, accordingly, is boldly ltalianate and uses the broad brush of Commedia del Arte to underline the action. Hence, Dogberry the dim-witted constable, doubles as Harlequin; introducing the entertainment,, blowing the half-time whistle and closing proceedings with a snap of his fingers while the actors rattle through Act I spelling out the detail in very knockabout fashion.
The effect of this is that the narrative is as clear as a gong but the Reverberations of the play are sometimes muted. As they get through the business, actors at times mistake speed for pace and oversimplification for clarity. In fact, for a nasty moment it starts to look like Carry on About Nothing. But it is likely that the players will calibrate their performances more finely as the season progresses since even on opening night the rhythm had settled down in the second half.
Ken Wilby and Mark Thompson have designed a three-sided colonnade with conspiratorially low lighting from John Comeadow. Despite some eccentric blocking and a stark acting area, it allows for frankly anti-naturalistic acting which is put to amusing effect, for instance, when the love-shy Beatrice and Benedick lurk behind columns and overhear reports contrived for match-making.
As Benedick, William Zappa gives a richly comic performance. Although he mugs dreadfully in Acts I and II, it must be said that the audiences adore it. However, in his delineation of the change in Benedick from wary cynic through feckless suitor to compleat lover that provides the greater pleasure. Overall Zappa gives an intelligent and nicely judged portrayal as Benedick begins to see just how destructive all that Boys’ Own Annual stuff can be. He is shaken to his spurs at Beatrice’s vehemence in demanding that he revenge her by killing his kinsman Claudio. She begins sabre-rattling just when he is about to stop all that sort of thing. William Zappa gives a plum role and outstanding rendering and when he really hits his straps, his ease with the language is one of the delights of the production.
As Beatrice, Celia de Burgh also gives a strong performance. Her ripostes to Benedick and forthrightness in defence of Hero’s reputation have . vividness and vitality and she gives the character a recognisable modernity without straining the terms of Shakespeare’s comedy. Vic Rooney is assured and convincing as Leonato, intemperate and then contrite, presiding over the restoration of honour and order. Patrick Frost as Don Pedro was uneven but his initial rattliness gave way to a sturdy performance by Act V. It is a curious role. To a great extent Don Pedro serves the purposes of the plot and his reaction, like Claudio’s is one of arrogant indifference at the news of Hero’s ‘death’. In not attempting to gloss over this, the production has a sharpness and dissonance which.makes the play intriguing and memorable.
Peter Crossley’s Don John is a right bastard, as he should be. Don John is a Vice figure without psychological dimension; he is malicious and that’s why he’s there. The interest is in what happens when other characters become affected by suspicion and doubt and must face the consequences in their own actions. Luciano Martucci is valiant as Claudio.He is impulsive and unworldly but the part remains problematic just like that drongo Bertram in All’s Well That Ends Well.
Catherine McClements gives a good account of the long-suffering Hero and Kate Roberts is shrewdly downbeat as Margaret, resisting the temptation to coarsen the role; similarly John Crouch’s Friar is well observed and he is in good voice as Balthazar. Henry Salter as Dogberry is earthily comic with a touch of the John Cleese. Festooned with militaria and in a daft three-cornered hat, he embodies the law as an ass but the performance ignores the satiric point that, thick though he is, Dogberry has a clearer sense of law and honour than the toffs in the play.
Much Ado About Nothing signals a strong start to State’s 1987 season. It is good-natured, accessible, snazzily dressed and offers some fine individual and ensemble acting. The co-direction team of Gaden and Edwards has good instincts about the local audience and like Wild Honey, Much Ado will pack them in. But in enticing us with this production, the company should also trust their reading of the play enough to resist just playing for the laughs.
“No Holds Bard” The Adelaide Review, No.36. March, 1987. p.20.