Peter Viney's Blog

Much Ado About Nothing
By William Shakespeare

 A Rose Theatre Kingston, Granville & Parham Productions and Antic Face co-production

Directed by Simon Dormandy
Designed by Naomi Dawson
Composer & Sound Designer: Jon Nicholls

 Rose Theatre, Kingston-on-Thames
Thursday 19^thApril 2018, 19.30

CAST
Mel Giedroyc as Beatrice
John Hopkins as Benedick

with

Peter Bray – Don John / House Clerk
Sam Dastor – Antonio / Verges
Peter Guinness – Don Pedro
Victoria Hamnett – Margaret / Watchman + violin / piano
Kate Lamb – Hero
Calum Lynch – Claudio
Caolan McCarthy – Conrad / Friar
Nicholas Prasad – Borachio + saxophone
David Rintoul – Leonato
Katherine Toy – Ursula / Jane Oatcake +accordion & piano
Stewart Wright – Dogberry
Silas Wyatt-Barke – Balthazar / George Seacole + guitar & mandolin

Community chorus:
Natalie Abbott
Vanessa Owen
Christian Search
Shiv Sharma
Callum Stewart
Charli Weston

My companion wanted to see this as soon as we got the advert. “Mel Giedroyc!” she exclaimed, ‘We have to see it.’ I felt a bit like the elderly high court judge who needs to be told, “Sir Paul McCartney is a popular musical entertainer who participates in gramophone recordings, M’lud.” Then she explained, “Mel & Sue? Great British Bake Off!” and I wasn’t much wiser. But I’ll always go and see Much Ado and The Rose, Kingston is one of the most pleasant theatres we visit.

As we set off in the car for Kingston, I broke the shrink wrap on the audiobook of Munich by Robert Harris which we got for Christmas. Reader? David Rintoul. Today’s Leonato, and the Old King / Player King in the recent Almeida / BBC2 Hamlet. A good sign.

The play works easily out of Shakespearean costume. Recent versions have focussed on the end of wars: The Old Vic did 1944, the RSC did Christmas 1918, the Globe took us into the Mexican Civil War in 1914. I was surprised that Joss Whedon’s 2013 American-accented black and white film, set in suburban California, failed to make a Sopranos / Mafia connection given the play’s original location in Messina, Sicily. This makes up for it, and we are in Sicily in modern times with Mafia trappings.

From the publicity:

Don Pedro is victorious. The turf war in the city is won and the Mafia overlord brings his entourage to Messina, a luxury spa hotel deep in the Sicilian hills, to hide out, recover and party. While Leonato, the hotel owner, fawns over his clan boss, his daughter, Hero, wins the heart of the Don’s young protégé. Meanwhile, Beatrice, the no-nonsense, customer-experience manager, has unfinished business to see to with Benedick, Pedro’s commitment-phobic consigliere. But when Hero is disgraced, the party is over, love turns to hatred and new battle lines are drawn.

Easier to quote than repeat!

Beatrice (Mel Giedroyc) at reception desk

The set design by Naomi Dawson is a modern hotel reception area, with Hero’s bedroom in the balcony. It looks very good. We start with the obligatory mobile phone announcement, but here it’s in Italian, then the play starts with a recorded message describing the delights of the spa hotel (and no, Shakespeare didn’t write that bit). A minor criticism, it was echoey to the point of distort down in the Pit. I suspected the speakers were high above us and the conical roof doesn’t help clarity.

The first rate programme notes by Richard Wilson point out that the opening line Don Pedro of Aragon comes this night … would have alarmed Protestant audiences just ten years after the Spanish Armada … Aragon was the Spanish royal house, plus the villainous brother Don John was the name of the illegitimate brother of the King of Spain, just as Don John is the bastard here. Sicily, the setting for the play, and Naples, were part of the Spanish Mediterranean Empire. It’s also pointed out that at the time of the Armada threat, there were local watches along the coast, very much the originals of Dad’s Army: old men and beardless youths. So Dogberry and the Watch, so often portrayed nowadays as a Dads Army group, are actually the originals. Here they become security guards in hi-res waistcoats.

David Rintoul is in white trousers and pink jacket as Leonato, the hotel boss, and surely the Basil Fawlty moustache isn’t a coincidence. Mel Giedroyc as Beatrice is dressed in a tight straight dress (for added hip wiggle). Don Pedro’s arrival makes full effective use of the “community chorus” of six … the whole play does. They enter as an armed group, surrounding the Don (Peter Guinness), checking everything out before Leonato comes over to kiss hands. Claudio (Calum Lynch) is a pugnacious young thug with an MLE accent (Multicultural London English, aka “Jafaican” … or fake Jamaican). It’s an accent of great interest to Applied Linguists, combining Jamaican, Greek, Pakistani elements into Cockney and the “yoof” accent of London 2018. That’s a crude and simplistic definition, so please don’t pick it apart.  They contrasted it with Don John (Peter Bray) who went for a straight Estuary accent, being older.  As Peter Bray also played the court clerk he needed a strong difference, as his physical appearance is striking.  He used clear RP for the court clerk. Benedick is John Hopkins, sporting a rich beard (the plot calls for its removal later).

It starts very well. Beatrice plays up the sexy wiggle and extreme funny facial expressions, but that’s her thing. Throughout, careful use was made of Hero’s bedroom above the stage, with lots of added silent scenes (which help with the plot considerably) enacted there. The silent bits worked especially well. The balcony is dictated by the three tier design of the building, and is at the level of the circle seats. That is, it’s also much higher than (say) the balcony at the Globe or RSC , or seems so. Again, sound from up there echoed down where we were.

Masked ball: Claudio (Calum Lynch) & Hero (Kate Lamb)

The masked ball is, as in Romeo & Juliet, an early important plot point. You can either do it minimalist, assuming the eye and nose masks were an accepted fiction … an obviously false attempt at disguise …  back then. Or you can say, ‘No, they really were completely masked.’ As so often in masked balls, they went for the full Fancy Dress Shop 2018 costumes with funny animals and superhero suits, with Hero (Kate Lamb) facially visible in her Minnie Mouse dress, and with Claudio as Batman. The balcony helped here, because they added a bit with Leonato and Antonio getting dressed up. Leonato as a lion … only in typing this did the penny drop … Leo … lion. So even though fully disguised we knew who they were. Just as in The Globe’s Romeo & Juliet in 2017, they went way over the top. Beatrice was in a huge cow suit. Too much so, I thought. It detracted from Don John (Peter Bray) who you want to look sinister, not in a slightly silly green and purple muscle suit. There was also blue smoke and live music, and I feel the intercut dialogues lost coherence here. The masked ball looked fine, but ended up staccato and incoherent. It’s supposed to lead to suggestions of seduction and villainy which you can’t pull off when you’re looking daft.

This production has a very short run … April 13th to 6th May. I was reading the Globe blog on their current extended rehearsals for the summer, and they are rehearsing for virtually a six month run, as do the RSC. Clearly you can’t devote such long rehearsals to a three week run, and in the complex busy masked ball scene, we both thought it showed. Not tight enough on action.

L to R: Benedick (John Hopkins), Leonato (David Rintoul), Claudio (Calum Lynch), Don Pedro (Peter Guinness)

The overhearing scenes were both very funny. When Benedick listens, the three plotters (Pedro, Leonato, Claudio) have emerged from the sauna. Benedick works from a chair down in the Pit, then scrambles to the other side … he tore the knee of his trousers too, but probably only tonight.

L to R: Beatrice (Mel Giedroyc), Ursula (Katherine Toy), Hero (Kate Lamb)

Beatrice’s overhearing sene often suffers because the “overhearing” jokes have all been done in the previous Benedick scene. However, this was terrific stuff. She finally managed to hide behind the reception desk, and got tangled up with the electronic control board, setting off sounds and lights which the female plotters had to pretend to ignore.

Beatrice calls Benedick in to dinner

That bedroom was used to great effect for seduction scenes with Borachio (Nichlas Prasad) and Margaret (Victoria Hamnett). That scene never actually takes place in the play, though several directors have added it (and I definitely would). Here it was sexier and more elaborate than usual and segued into the Romeo & Juliet balcony scene, with lines from Romeo & Juliet too. Very well done … but hang on, what about chronology? We see that scene before we see Don John telling Don Pedro and Claudio to come and watch Hero’s window. If you’re adding the whole visual aspect, surely you then put the bedroom scene in AFTER that. OK, we can assume Borachio & Margaret were doing it every night, but even so, wrong place.

Stewart Right was very good as Constable Dogberry, but what was the tai-chi costume and moves about? It seemed to come from nowhere.

Conrad (Caolan MCarthy) & Borachio (Nicholas Prased) confront the Watch

They cut to the interval on the Watch arresting Borachio and Conrad. At this point, Conrad (Caolan McCarthy) was rolling a joint with a kingsize Rizla packet which we could see had half its top torn off. They did a very good funny tying up scene, but I would have had someone put Conrad’s makings into a plastic evidence bag to point the joke.

Wisely, they amended Dogberry’s mistaken lines and updated them. They added a whole routine of getting Don Pedro’s name wrong differently every time – I’ll only spoil one of four or five examples: Don Pedalo.

At the interval we were agreeing with other reviews … a motley collection of good inventive ideas, but a lack of flow and rhythm. Like all high concept productions, there are points where it becomes hard to marry the concept wth the lines.

Claudio (Calum Lynch) accuses Hero (Kate Lamb). Priest centre(Calan McCarthy)

The production picked up pace and power in the wedding scene. It’s always a difficult switch to serious stuff. It worked so well because Don Pedro, Leonato and Claudio were so strong in it. David Rintoul’s Leonato was incensed at full power. Claudio mixed pugnacity and furious petulance brilliantly … it was hard to believe this was Calum Lynch’s professional debut. Kate Lamb’s Hero reflected all this (very good faint too) and made something powerful of a traditionally insipid role. Caolan McCarthy’s Friar was very good with an Irish accent.

Beatrice (Mel Giedroyc), Hero (Kate Lamb), Ursula (Katherine Toy)

So, the serious side took over and played well.

The names above the title are Mel Giedroyc and John Hopkins (though only Mel on the main flyers; both online). They were a strong Beatrice and Benedick. I never envy a major TV star or film star in Shakespeare because with critics you’re on a hiding to nothing. John Hopkins is a highly accomplished and experienced Shakespearean actor and shows it. Very funny, strong, and also able to show the contrasting emotions. Mel Giedroyc acquitted herself well. She is naturally very funny, and also was suitably angered and distraught at Hero’s problems.  Mind you, “Kill Claudio.” is one of the great dramatic moments. I’ve seen it better done.

Beatrice and Benedick are the template for every Hollywood love / hate relationship on film (perhaps hate / love is more apt). There has to be a magnetic intimacy … first repelling then attracting as the poles reverse,. but you have to be aware of that sexual tension. We didn’t feel it was there. However, at the end, the scene where they’re holding each others love poems was stellar. They didn’t read them aloud – just pointed to bits and grimaced. One of the best I’ve seen it done.

Benedick (John Hop[kins) & Beatrice (Mel Giedroyc)

The “alternative bride” scene was well set up with seven women masked in black dancing around Claudio. He couldn’t guess which was Hero’s alleged cousin, though we’d guessed that it was the only one with gold wedding shoes below the robes. We loved the way Claudio was spoiling for a fight at all times, even after the supposed resolution. A stroppy bastard indeed. That’s a good interpretation, as it made sense of his behaviour.

There was a good Globe style dance ending. As mentioned, the play’s on until May 6th. You would have walked in easily last night and got good seats. The few sitting in the pit flat area abandoned it for front row pit seats at the side after the interval. The Broadway World review says “The Rose turns to Shakespeare to give it a needed boost.” Given Shakespeare and a major name, audience size was disappointing. Maybe that’s why the theatre needs a boost. Nice to see a younger audience though, but I’d guess that was Sixth Formers.

With all the fuss going on about Mrs Rich at the RSC and the controversy over colour blind casting, the Rose continues immune, apart from Don John. They’d argue that it’s supposed to be Italy and the Mafia. They had a very good chorus and also musician actors doubling. It’s quite surprising that they are definitely not in the RSC/ Globe ethnic counting area.

We both agreed that it didn’t feel particularly “Italian.” Perhaps it was a contemporary setting, where the most successful Italian modern settings have been 1950s and 1960s when the world was fascinated by all things Italian from espresso to Lambrettas to Sophia Loren. The RSC’s Taming of The Shrew was set in late 40s / early 50s Cinema Paradiso territory. Branagh’s Romeo & Juliet was high 60s fashion Italy. Both had a sense of place that this lacked.

Overall? Lots of fun, highly entertaining. Flops on the fancy dress party, coherence in Act One and lack of Beatrice / Benedick magnetism. The run is far too short. Given a couple more weeks and a tour it would tighten up and flow better.

***

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

5 star
Sally Knipe, London Theatre com *****
4 star
Alice Saville, Time Out ****
3 star
Michael Billington, The Guardian ***
Domenic Cavendish, Telegraph ***
Ann Treneman, The Times ***
Jane Edwardes, Sunday Times ***
Sarah Crompton, What’s On Stage ***
Paul Vale, TheStage ***
Aliya Al-Hassan, Broadway World ***
2 star
Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard **

LINKS ON THIS BLOG:

• Much Ado About Nothing- Wyndhams, 2011 David Tennant, Catherine Tate
• Much Ado About Nothing – Old Vic 2013 James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave

• Much Ado About Nothing – Globe 2014
• Much Ado About Nothing – RSC 2014 (aka Love’s Labour’s Won)
• Much Ado About Nothing – RSC 2016 revival
• Much Ado About Nothing – Globe 2017
• Much Ado About Nothing – Rose, Kingston 2018, Mel Giedroyc
• Much Ado About Nothing, Northern Broadsides, on tour, Salisbury 2019
• Much Ado About Nothing, RSC 2022
• Much Ado About Nothing, National Theatre 2022
• Much Ado About Nothing – FILM – Joss Whedon, 2013