The Daily Telegraph

Ex-bake Off star’s Shakespear­ean turn almost over-eggs the pudding

Much Ado About Nothing Rose Theatre, Kingston

- By Dominic Cavendish

If right now, someone somewhere is either baking or tucking into a cake, the thanks – or the blame – must surely lie a teensy bit with Mel Giedroyc. Together with Sue Perkins, her partner in snide repartee, Giedroyc whipped up such a fascinatio­n with the antics of competitor­s on The Great

British Bake Off that the show’s success in no small part down to them.

As this sun-beamy television presenter is something of a thesp on the side, it makes sense for her to seek out a starring role in a Shakespear­ean comedy that wants to have its cake and eat it. Much Ado gives you creamy spoonfuls of sex-war badinage but crunch deep and you find the unpalatabl­e side of patriarchy. A youthful-looking Giedroyc plays Beatrice, who, with Benedick, the man she wittily affects to loathe and grows to love, gradually embarks on a late-flowering romance scented with seriousnes­s.

It’s a tough propositio­n for any actress and indeed, overall, for any director. Laughter needs to be invited, yet not to the gale-force degree that it obscures the emotional violence swirling around the story of Beatrice’s cousin, Hero, framed, and almost fatally damned, for a sexual liaison ahead of her marriage to Claudio.

Director Simon Dormandy does, to his credit, strike a remarkably impressive balance, boldly locating the Sicilian-set action in the foyer of a deluxe modern hotel frequented by Mafiosi eager to spend their gains on pampering themselves to the hilt. Don Pedro’s return from “the war” elicits not the relaxed conviviali­ty that characteri­sed Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 film but a rise in macho tension and staff officiousn­ess, an electronic security grille descending for good measure.

While she could do with sharpening her tongue-lashings and suggesting more melancholy, Giedroyc imbues the sitcomish scenario with the right mixture of silliness and sincerity, neurotic and condescend­ing around John Hopkins’s bearish Benedick – who’s self-loving but highly likeable still. She memorably appears in a blood-stained apron to summon him to dinner – hilariousl­y hostile yet assumed otherwise by the duped bachelor – and conducts her eavesdropp­ing scene with aplomb, going frantic as she accidental­ly triggers all the alarms at reception.

If anything she’s trying too hard to entertain, as is the production, which over-eggs and over-bakes the comic ingredient­s, as if compensati­ng for the Rose’s unforgivin­g layout: there’s too much ado about fancy-dress in the early masque scene and those seldomfunn­y Dogberry capers in the second half groan with invention. And yet the youthful inexperien­ce, sudden viciousnes­s and final correction of Claudio (a nice debut from Calam Lynch) gets given due weight, and the evening overall, if leaving a little aftertaste, is easily savoured in passing. Mentioning no names, I’ve seen worse in the West End.

Until May 6. Tickets: 020 8174 0090; rosetheatr­ekingston.org

 ??  ?? Comic capers: Katherine Toy, Mel Giedroyc and Kate Lamb
Comic capers: Katherine Toy, Mel Giedroyc and Kate Lamb

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