Much Ado About Nothing
★★★☆☆ Energetic
Pleasance Theatre: Tues 4 – Sat 8 Feb 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
The Edinburgh University Shakespeare Company’s Much Ado About Nothing at the Pleasance is a good-natured if uneven production.
Shakespeare’s comedy of love, confusion, honour and deceit has often been seen recently in cut-down versions, so it is something of a change to see a version that almost touches three hours. At such length, it is unavoidable that the quality of the production varies somewhat.
Eric Parker (Don Pedro, standing), with Francesca Carter (Hero), Rider Hartley (Claudio), Faolon Ingram (Leonato), Dora Revell (Ursula) and George Laing (Balthazar). Pic: Lucas MacNair
Co-directors Madeleine Brown and Marina Funcasta’s decision to set the play in 1970s California is a potentially intriguing one. Unfortunately it has not been as carefully thought through as it might have.
Leonato’s house seems to be a recording studio, and there is a great deal of vinyl from (roughly) the right era on display. As soon as the action starts, however, any parallels with 1970s California soon fall away, aside from the well chosen costumes of Alex Dunlop, Bea Fitz and Paloma Leigh-Stephenson. What follows is not so much a reimagining of the play as a version in fancy dress.
Apart from anything else, a setting in hedonistic 1970s Laurel Canyon, with its famed drug-fuelled ‘sleepovers’, makes something of a mockery of the play’s emphasis on chastity. The ‘free love’ culture of the era certainly remained decidedly patriarchal, indeed misogynistic, at heart, but the condemnation of Hero for apparently having sex outside marriage seems very odd.
a beautifully realised performance,
Although their narrative starts out as something of a sub-plot, the play has often been thought of as centring on the story of Beatrice and Benedick, and this is certainly what happens here. Benny Harrison’s Benedick is a beautifully realised performance, with a comic self-absorption that is nevertheless peculiarly sympathetic.
Benedict Harrison (Bennedick), Eric Parker (Don Pedro), Rider Hartley (Claudio), George Laing (Balthazar) and Faolon Ingram (Leonato). Pic: Lucas MacNair
Verity Mann’s Beatrice is equally impressive, and sparks fly when they are together on stage. Their partnership is so involving that, once the pair have finally declared their love, Beatrice’s famous ‘kill Claudio’ line provokes as great a reaction from the audience as can have been seen in many years.
The two of them dominate the production to such an extent that some of the rest seems comparatively flat. This is not the fault of the cast, who all put in the maximum of effort. Rather it is because a decision has obviously been made to play up the light-hearted elements of the play, with the result that there is little in the way of light and shade. Instead, it is all cartoonish, with the result that neither the more potentially tragic, nor the more overtly comic, moments have the impact they might.
Eric Parker’s Don Pedro has a louche charm and George Laing’s Balthasar a definite energy, while Ryder Hartley’s upstanding Claudio and Francesca Carter’s Hero play out their troubled love story with grace. Faolan Ingram’s Leonato is an excellent comic presence, although this does have the effect of diminishing the pathos later on. Maria Wollgast’s Antonia is a wonderfully judged performance, although making the character female does serve to confuse the already odd idea of Hero’s ‘death’ further.
spaced-out comedy turn
This is not helped by making Dylan Kaeuper’s Friar a full-on spaced-out comedy turn, with Amelia Duda and Amaya Oppong as his acolytes. This is funny enough in itself, but has the effect of making the whole storyline even more ludicrous than it already is, as if no-one in the production feels able to play it straight.
Francesca Carter (Hero), Dora Revell (Ursula) and Verity Mann (Beatrice). Pic: Lucas MacNair
An opposite problem affects the comic scenes featuring the malaprop-spouting Dogberry and the night watch. These are often cut considerably (or completely) and with good reason; they can only work if they are sold with the maximum of conviction. Here, it doesn’t appear as if anyone believes they could be that funny. Robbie Morris attacks Dogberry with the maximum of energy, and Lupa Leeb, Tara Mottahedan, Violet Ward and Ali Lakhany provide sterling support, but it never quite comes off.
By contrast, the scenes when Beatrice and Benedick are separately allowed to ‘overhear’ about the other’s supposed love are played with utter certainty by all concerned however ridiculous the situation may be, and succeed brilliantly as a result. The Beatrice scene features Mia Dé’s Margaret and Dora Revell’s Ursula, both of which are very well judged portrayals.
complete confidence
Similarly, the decision apparently to make the villainous characters British punk rockers, as re-imagined by a US television series, could have been disastrous, but comes off due to the complete confidence shown by Fraser Murray’s Borachio and Sam Gearing’s Conrade. Cameron Broadley’s Don John, as the most extreme portrayal of the three, does not work quite as well, but exerts a macabre fascination nevertheless.
Amelia Duda (Groupie/Hippie), Dylan Kaeuper (Friar) and Amaya Oppong (Groupie/Hippie). Pic: Lucas MacNair
Émile Noël’s set is cleverly designed, with the various changes well handled. Musical director Laurie MacFarlane and the onstage band of Ethan James, Jamie Reid and Saskia Moses are perhaps underused.
There has obviously been considerable thought put into all of the visual impact; as well as the directors, intimacy coordinator Frantiska Vosatkova and movement director Edith Alderton have played their part in this. Sometimes there is a little too much extraneous business; the fascination a Billy Joel LP sleeve holds for various different characters is definitely overplayed.
always fun
There are other moments which grate, such as the occasional swearing for no apparent reason other than getting a cheap laugh. However, there has obviously been a great deal of care put into every aspect of the production. There are some elements that have not been as carefully thought through as they might, and it is certainly far too long, but it is always fun.
Running time: Two hours and 55 minutes (including one interval)
Pleasance Theatre, 60 Pleasance, EH8 9TJ
Tuesday 4 – Saturday 8 February 2025
Daily at 7.00 pm
Tickets and details: Book here.
Instagram: @eusc.muchadoaboutnothing
The cast of the EUSC’s Much Ado About Nothing. Pic Lucas MacNair
