Blissful Bard offers a feast of comic delights
Much Ado About Nothing (Theatre Royal Haymarket) Verdict: Spot-on Shakespeare ★★★★★
tWO years after it was first seen in stratford, the Royal shakespeare Company’s Much ado about nothing (a collaboration with Chichester’s Festival theatre) has come to the West end for a short run. Bliss.
this is a delicious show, wellsuited to the opulence of the theatre Royal Haymarket. the setting, the acting, and most of all the music, are spot on.
Director Christopher Luscombe imagines Leonato’s palace as an english country house which has been part- requisitioned for military quarters in World War I.
the first we see of Lisa Dillon’s Beatrice, she is wearing a nurse’s uniform. Don Pedro, Benedick and Claudio roll up on leave, in uniform. Benedick is played by edward Bennett, until recently one of the bright young men of english theatre, now maturing into something more resonant and chunky. Does he call to mind Prince andrew in his 40s?
With the excellent John Hodgkinson playing Don Pedro we have two rich timbres at once. Good diction, strong comic timing, an easy watch. I have seen more sensuous Beatrice and Benedick pairings, but the levity is milked for its full potential — Benedick hides behind a large Christmas tree during the gulling scene.
nick Haverson’s Dogberry, that windy constable who can sometimes be tiresome, manages to be not only tremendously funny (a routine with a table is priceless) but also slightly troublingly lonely.
Miss Dillon delivers her ‘ kill Claudio’ line just right, allowing a pause between the words which silences and shocks the audience. young Rebecca Collingwood is perfect as Hero.
With designer simon Higlett delivering a gorgeous and ingenious set and nigel Hess’s jaunty music entrancing the audience, the Haymarket deserves to have a busy few weeks while Much ado runs in tandem with the same company’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.