Much Ado About Nothing

Wyndham’s Theatre, London
21 May 2011

The clue really is in the title. Much Ado is a none too demanding bit of Shakespeare and so it kind of makes sense to set it in the 1980s – that none too demanding decade. That’s if you view the 80s as the era of Duran Duran, Lady Di and ra-ra skirts, as opposed to the era of Thatcher, mass unemployment and the miner’s strikes.

This new production at Wyndham’s Theatre starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate opens onto what appears to be set of Wham!’s Club Tropicano video. A view reinforced when the soldiers enter wearing their crisp white uniforms and Ray-bans. For the rest of the show we have Adam Ant dance routines, Miami Vice style pulled up jacket sleeves and Rubik cubes. What period is the show set again?

However, giving the show a modern feel does jar when confronted with the some of the characters attitudes and behaviour. At her wedding Hero is verbally belittled and derided by Claudio and her father for being unfaithful. Yet we have already been shown a world of raucous hen and stag parties. Are we really to believe that every young woman in this society is so chaste? Later when the truth is finally revealed regarding Don John’s lies, Hero is only too eager to forgive Claudio for the damning words he spoke earlier.

The show is a clear vehicle for Tennant and Tate and I’m certain that the packed auditorium for the show I attended will be repeated throughout the rest of its run. So you can see why the 80s feel-good setting for a commercial West End run and the casting of the two leads seems to be an ideal choice for the show.

Tennant’s Benedick arrives on stage whizzing around on a golf buggy, dishing out beers to his fellow soldiers. It’s a nice comic entrance for Benedick and for Tennant himself. The audience gives him a huge round of applause and the rest of the show then allows Tennant to simply have some fun. The scene where he ‘overhears’ the Prince , Leonato and Claudio describe Beatrice’s apparent love for Benedick gives Tennant a good opportunity to demonstrate his slapstick skills. If West End work ever dries up for him, he can look forward to a good career in regional Panto.

Catherine Tate is Catherine Tate. Lines are delivered in that sneery, slightly nasal, over em-pha-siz-ing type way we associate with her. So although the performance seems familiar, aren’t Benedick and Beatrice the prototype screwball-comedy couple, which the Doctor and Donna are just one of the latest pairings? In other words, non-surprising casting for Shakespeare’s quarrelling couple, with Tate producing nothing exceptional. Whereas at least Tennant gets into a denim mini-skirt!

There are other strong performances in the show. I particularly liked Alex Beckett’s debauched Borachio and John Ramm’s Dogberry proves that you can make Shakespeare’s comic characters funny.

There is also a great set design from Robert Jones. The simple revolve and moving columns is very effective in creating both hidden and open areas of space on the stage.

This is a show that may make scholars and critics a bit sniffy, but as a commercial West End package for Shakespeare it’s a guaranteed success.