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Much Ado About Nothing

 


When: 24th August 2022 (Matinee)

Where: National Theatre, London

Writer: William Shakespeare

Director: Simon Godwin


Set in the Italian Riveria this production of Much Ado About Nothing, shows us the classic story we all know and love whilst creating bright and fun images. On the whole this Much Ado is one of the more accessible plays anyway, often taught in secondary schools, but the way in which this production presented the story was so fresh and modern, most of the time you forgot that what they were saying was not modern day english. 

Katherine Parkinson and John Heffernan were brilliant, they had perfect comedic timing and they're portrayal of Beatrice and benedick was spot on. One of the standout moments was the ice-cream cart scene, when Benedick hides in an ice-cream cart to avoid being seen and ends up being covered in ice-cream, whipped cream and sprinkles. Clearly this was not in the original, but it is these simple and exciting scenes that keep shakespeares work being produced time and time again. Parkinson added a down to earth and grounded nature to the character of Beatrice which is a strong interpretation of the character. As well as she plays the character, I struggled a little with the idea that such a independent woman who seems content on her own would fall so quickly into marrying Benedick. Even in the original this is present to some extent, but I wonder whether it was overplayed a little to the point the ending became forced, in this production I was slightly annoyed at the fact after everything she had ended up with the guy anyway. 

I loved the setting change, the vibrant italian riviera shown was a spectacle and the 20's style costumes and dancing added to the thrill and excitement of the piece, but there were moments where it fell a but flat, returning to doing justice to the script and losing the high energy it had previously held. 

Overall whilst I really enjoyed this production, it was true to the original script and was a good example of what I call 'Shakespeare done right', they didn't try to do it how it would have been done during Shakespeares period and they didn't sit down and analyse the text, they approached it as if it was a contemporary script and had fun with it. I think thats what shakespeare should be, and why I don't like the way shakespeare is presented to children in schools it is the sole reason for so many people not liking shakespeare. It was not meant to be read and analysed as a text in an English GCSE, it is a script meant to be performed and spoken aloud. However I believe this performance was weaker than Simon Godwins previous production of Twelfth Night also at the National Theatre, there was something fun and quirky about it that made it leap out at you consistently holding the audience. Again that being said if you want to get people of all ages interested and excited by Shakespeare you cannot go wrong with this production. 

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