Claudio loves Hero and Hero Claudio and nothing seems capable of tearing them apart. Claudio’s friend Benedick loves Beatrice and Beatrice Benedick, but (because neither will admit it) nothing seems capable of bringing them together. Only the intrigues of a resentful prince force Benedick to prove his love for Beatrice – by killing his best friend.
Driven along by a romance all the more charming for being unacknowledged, Much Ado About Nothing is a miracle of comic and dramatic suspense and gives us, in the bantering Beatrice and Benedick, two of Shakespeare’s wittiest and most beloved lovers.
Fans of this play, one of Shakespeare's wittiest and most loved will be spoiled for choice this summer. First up is Jeremy Herrin's sparkling period piece at The Globe. The critics opinions are in and David Tennant and Catherne Tate will have to go some way to outdo this version;
"Eve Best and Charles Edwards are the merrily warring, beautifully balanced, Bea and Ben. Best presents us with a tart, feisty Beatrice, whose obsessive harping on her single state suggests a touch of desperation and whose gaiety is faintly manic. Edwards has a fine comic instinct and lends Benedick a feathery self-assurance." Michael Billington
“Beautiful balance: Eve Best, who plays Beatrice and Charles Edwards, who plays Benedick compliment each other perfectly. The very best Much Ados touch the heart as much as they do the funny bone. That is the great thing about the Globe under artistic director Dominic Dromgoole: there is an admirable energy about the place. By the end of this show, the whole theatre was ooh-ing, aah-ing and clapping manically during a long-awaited kiss. Man is indeed ‘a giddy thing’ when faced with this sort of unaffected, unashamed entertainment.” -Quentin Letts
"The well-matched pair shares a lightness of touch and their sparrings are spiky but not scathing, allowing us to easily believe their “merry war” is underpinned by genuine affection." - Express
"One of the many joys of Beatrice and Benedick is that they are characters with a history and can be portrayed, to rich and poignant effect, as people of a certain age. They've loved - each other - and lost once already, leaving them to take refuge behind sparkling wits. Best and Edwards tuck into their big set-pieces with relish, with Best's smiling Beatrice building up a cherishable rapport with the groundlings and Edwards spinning Benedick from tentatively pompous to almost sincere in a heartbeat." Evening Standard
I've got a Groundling ticket to see this and by the sound of these reviews it's gonna be a teeny tiny £5 well spent.
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