Theatre Review: Much Ado About Nothing

The Play: Much Ado About Nothing 

The Company: Melbourne Theatre Company

The Theatre: Southbank Theatre 

Runtime: Two and a half hours with a 20 minute interval

Season Ending: 20 December 

Stars: 4

So, another MTC season comes to an end, and it ends on a high, with a very good Much Ado About Nothing. So good then even scheduled another two performances - but these are happening tomorrow, so there's no chance of seeing it now. 

I'll admit, as a Shakespeare boffin, that Much Ado About Nothing is far from my favourite comedy. 400 years on from its first performances, relationships between men and women have moved on a bit (unless you're in America). Women aren't chattel, their virginity essential, their choices unheard. The one shining light is Beatrice (Allison Bell) who is a woman who knows her own mind and heart. Strong, outspoken, Beatrice is fiercely protective of her cousin Hero (Meila Anich) she loves going into verbal war with Benedict (Fayssal Bazzi). Benedict, a confirmed batchelor, wants nothing to do with love. Hero, on the other hand, wants to marry Claudio (Remy Heremaia), a soldier, who is friends with Claudio and the Prince  - Don Pedro (John Shearman). The Prince has just come back from the war, after making an uneasy truce with his half-brother, Don Juan - renamed The Bastard (Chanella Macri). The Bastard wants to get back at his brother, setting in place a plan to discredit Hero by having one of his henchmen sleep with Hero's maid, then slander Hero. 

Claudio dumps Hero in a very public way, slandering her. Everybody is upset. Hero faints, and is presumed dead. In the meantime, she's hidden way while Benedict tries to clear her name, putting him in Beatrice's good books for good. Of course, Beatrice and Benedict are star-crossed lovers. You know they'll be happily bickering into their dotage. 

Messy. Yes. Shakespearean. Very. 

But this is why you go to see Shakespeare - not to see a new story, but to see what they've done with it. 

This version of Much Ado is wonderful. 

Using a cast of eight, they keep the main parts while relieving us of the more snooze-worthy political bits. Mark Wilson's direction is on point. Fast, snappy, making the most of the funny bits while keeping some of the more serious themes in the fore. I particularly like the use of the main cast playing smaller roles. The actor playing Hero also played Borachio, the henchman - she was brilliant in both roles. The actor playing Claudio was also in the ensemble. Chanella Makri made an imposing Bastard, as well as Hero's maid, Margaret. Julie Forsyth was wonderful as Dogberry and Ursula the maid.  The ethnically diverse cast is a breath of fresh air too - this is something the MTC do well. 

For me, the best thing about the performance was the set and staging. With the main set based on Sam Newman's house in St Kilda (a big wall with Pamela Anderson's face emblazoned on the facade) they took away the proscenium arch, and you could see backstage.

Genius move. Anna Cordingey's set was brilliant

The extra space was used to great advantage. In the wings, you could see the character's preparing and being dressed for their next scenes, props waiting to be used and the crew moving about. None of this took away from the action. 

This was a great way to see out the year. I got my fix of Shakespeare done in a most wonderful way. 

I'd be telling everybody to see this, if it wasn't closing tomorrow. 

Today's song: