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:

2 August 2002

The Haymarket stage is a blaze of colour in designer Stephen Brimson Lewis's recreation of a Italian village which must have some of the audience thinking wistfully of Mediterranean holidays. But this is no festive atmosphere.

Gregory Doran's production is set in 1930s Sicily and attempts to combine mafioso concepts of family honour with the rise of Fascism as Don Pedro and his men return from Abyssinia. It's an interesting concept and, at times, there appear to be three plays going on simultaneous: a political power struggle between Don Pedro and Don John; a Sicilian play about revenge; and, underneath it all, Shakespeare's original comedy struggling to get out.

But the political emphasis is overdone. When Conrade says to a blackshirted Don John "you have lately stood out against your brother," it's not hard to guess at political conflict between the old aristocracy and the Fascists. But surely by 1936, the Fascists would have mustered enough power to render Don Ped...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 6 August 2002:

Wonderful....

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