Peter Viney's Blog

By William Shakespeare
Adapted by Tom Wentworth

Directed by Paul Hart
Designer Ceci Calf
Sound and Musical Director Robin Colyer

The Watermill Theatre
Bagnor, Newbury
Saturday 11th May 2024 14.30

CAST
Katherine Jack- Beatrice
James Mack- Benedick
Thuliswa Magwaza – Hero
Fred Double- Claudio
Patrick Bridgman – Leonato
Hayden Wood- Dogberry
Emma Barclay – Verges / Friar / Conrade
Priscile Grace – Margaret
Augustina Seymour- Don John
Jack Quarton – Don Pedro

The Watermill is always a treat. I think they have a Faustian pact with the god of weather as it seems bright and sunny every time we go there. The bar menu has expanded too, and was excellent.

This is a Hollywood version, taking place on a film set in the golden age of movies. A similar idea was used by Headlong for A Midsummer Night’s Dream a dozen years ago. It works particularly well for the Dream as you already have a director (Quince) and actors. They’re filming Where the Wild Thyme Blows so the four lovers are actors in that film, dressed in classical Greek costume (Athenian garb).

It’s an intriguing idea anyway, and the 1940s music fits. As my twin passions are theatre and the golden age of Hollywood it’s a perfect match. Actually, it wears the concept mainly at a visual level. Wisely, I felt, they stayed with their own British accents. Ten actors doing American usually has at least half jarring, especially if they’re trying to reproduce Shakespearean lines AND do it in American.

We start with Don Pedro in a labelled Director chair, but it’s not followed through. The four soldiers arrive in 1940s flying jackets with a medal each. Hayden Wood is a grip – with a touch of electrics, lights and painting, adding several excellent jokes. Costumes are 1940s. Then in the second part, Verges and Dogberry are in Keystone cops uniforms. Flats are moved to form a library, an orchard and a church as if film sets. Film lights are on stage and used for (e.g.) interrogating Conrade. While the script is cut there’s very little deviation apart from Dogberry and Verges, and that’s allowable for all clown roles in Shakespeare.

In true Watermill fashion the cast all play instruments. I thought at five numbers, there were fewer songs than usual, and they were all in 1940s style. Of course they list the songs in the programme – a note that the RSC and Chichester continually fail to follow. I think three played piano (Leonato, Don Pedro, Margaret). At least three played double bass (Don John, Dogberry and another). At one point Hayden Wood and Augustina ‘hot swapped’ on double bass. One plays with the hand on the neck as they change, one plucks the strings. Then they switch. Fred Double as Claudio not only played trumpet and drums but delivered a long trumpet solo. Augustina Seymour as Don John gave a full professional level cello accompaniment to one song.

We twice got a full horn section … trumpet (Claudio), saxophone (Dogbery), trombone (Don Pedro). It sounded fabulous. Priscile Grace (as Margaret) is there as lead singer as her main task.

I was disconcerted for ten minutes by the signing actors. This as happened here before, but they have two (dressed in overalls as grip crew) and they are right up centre stage, shadowing the actors, joining in the dances. For a few minutes I was thinking ‘why aren’t they at one side, like other signed performances?’ But then they were fully integrated, with the cast leaning on them, putting arms around them. This requires a lot of work, and after the initial discomfort, I thought them an excellent addition.

It’s broad comedy – which is as Shakespeare intended. James Mack’s Benedict is immediately funnier than usual. Hayden Wood and Emma Barclay have continual comedy. Emma Barclay manages to play Verges, Conrade and the Friar. I loved the sexton scene, where Hayden Wood has to be Dogberry (standing) then switch to The Sexton (sitting). Having a tall, RP Dogberry instead of the usual rural oaf worked absolutely perfectly.

The Benedick overhearing scene – no plot spoilers – is up there with the best. The Beatrice overhearing scene (Katherine Jack) most often drops the comedy a little, but not here. They sustained it, with the prop appletree falling over, and Beatrice having to pretend to be a tree holding apples – there’s much more to it.

Yet among all the fun, Claudio (Fred Double) and Hero (Thuliswa Magwaza ) do that most difficult of roles – the impassioned straight role amongst all the comedy. They can be somewhat “wet” parts … not here.

Patrick Bridgman as Leonato is another beautifully judged serious role, as is Jack Quarton’s Don Pedro. They gender switched Don John for Augustina Seymour. They didn’t change the name but referred to her as ‘sister’ to Don Pedro. She had jet black hair, bright red lips and resembled Cruella De Ville. Sometimes gender switches look forced. This one didn’t. It fitted.

It’s hard to rate. Five star for entertainment and energy, but I guess we should reserve a full five for something on a somewhat grander scale. So:

****

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

Not enough of them. As I say in my recent Salisbury review, they don’t get outside London if they can help it.

4 star
Judi Herman What’s On Stage ****
3 star
Dave Fargnoli, The Stage ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

• 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), Edward Bennett 
• Much Ado About Nothing – RSC 2016 revival, + Lisa Dillon
• 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, Katherine Parkinson
• Much Ado About Nothing, Watermill, 2024
• Much Ado About Nothing, The Globe 2024 Amalia Vitale
  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 – FILM – Joss Whedon, 2013
  Much Ado About Nothing – Globe 2014
  Much Ado About Nothing – RSC 2014 (aka Love’s Labour’s Won), Edward Bennett 
  Much Ado About Nothing – RSC 2016 revival, + Lisa Dillon
  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, Katherine Parkinson
  Much Ado About Nothing, Watermill, 2024
  Much Ado About Nothing, Globe, 2024
  Much Ado About Nothing, Jamie Lloyd Company 2025, Tom Hiddleston, Hayley Atwell
  Much Ado About Nothing, RSC 2025
• Much Ado About Nothing – FILM – Joss Whedon, 2013

PAUL HART (Director)

Twelfth Night, Watermill, 2017
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Watermill 2018
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Watermill On Tour, 2018
Macbeth, Watermill, 2019
Kiss Me Kate, Watermill 2019
Othello, Watermill 2022

JAMES MACK
The Rivals, Watermill, 2018

EMMA BARCLAY
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Watermill On Tour, 2018

AUGUSTINA SEYMOUR
Othello, Watermill 2022