Much Ado About Nothing

Synopsis

After civil war Messina seems to have returned to peace with few casualties and a courtship holds the promise of reconciling the battle of the sexes in a well matched wedding. But the reconciliation's have been too hurried and soldiers can't return to the civilian world overnight.

Our Review:

3 June 2004

Tamara Harvey’s new Globe production of Much Ado About Nothing - like the The Taming of the Shrew and Richard III at the same address last year - is played by an all-female cast. But, while the use of actresses brought a new dimension to those plays and offered several insights into the characters, this time it seems like a step too far – a gimmick for gimmick’s sake.

Part of the problem is that Much Ado depends less on characterisation than on the interplay between Beatrice and Benedict, whose dazzling verbal jousts tend to mask that this play lacks the depth of human insight displayed in some of Shakespeare’s later plays.

Unfortunately, Harvey’s production is light on wit as Josie Lawrence’s Benedict and Yolanda Vasquez’s Beatrice struggle to concoct the chemistry necessary to ignite and unite the lovers. This is certainly no fault of Vasquez, who brings out all of Beatrice’...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (193.118.206.221) - 16 September 2004:

An absolute joy with Yolanda Vasquez the perfect Beatrice and Sarah Woodward a very funny Dogberry (truly unusual). I forgot that women were playing men (apart from thinking Benedict a bit effeminate). The Globe is So much better without Mark Rylance's posturings....

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