Much Ado...Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is the play of the moment, and this summer two productions of the greatest romcom of them all are slugging it out for box-office success and critical acclaim.

In the West End, David Tennant and Catherine Tate, will be playing out “the merry war of wit” between Beatrice and Benedick, but Shakespeare’s Globe has got in first, and raises the bar high with this fabulous production starring Eve Best and Charles Edwards as the disputatious lovers.

More than 400 years on, Shakespeare’s play has lost none of its power to delight – and to astonish. The show generated great waves of warm laughter from a packed house that hung on to every word. With the Globe stage covered with pools of blue water and its pillars transformed into fruit-laden orange trees, this production memorably blends the play’s humour with its moments of darkness.

 Eve Best’s Beatrice is fiercely intelligent, ironic and good-hearted but using her prodigious wit as a shield against hurt. She makes it plain that her heart has already been bruised by Benedick and that her insults and jibes are intended to keep him at a distance.

Charles Edwards gives a superb performance as a feeling, thinking man who keeps pain at bay by pretending to be a cheerful silly ass.

The scenes when both are duped into believing that they are loved by the other and finally acknowledge their true feelings are staged with great wit, imagination and a sense of wonder. Best even grasps the hand of one of the spectators as she describes her sudden, unexpected happiness.

But, right to the end, both actors suggest the precariousness of their passion in a world corrupted by sin and made still more complex by their own articulate intelligence. Only when they kiss (to delighted cheers from the audience) does the flow of words cease in the joy of reciprocal passion.

 "Where it matters most, in the wit, wounded feelings and final happiness of Beatrice and Benedick, this production soars." The Telegraph

This is one of the best theatre experiences I've ever had - elbows on the stage being totally swept away in the fantastic storytelling of Shakespeare and the phenomenal skill and talent of this truly wonderful cast. I can't praise it highly enough.

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