"lively, zany, and zestful"

June 7, 2003 performance reviewed by Frances Benn Hall

Much Ado About Nothing, now playing at Shakespeare and Co's Founders Theatre, is the most lively, zany, and zestful production of the play that this reviewer has ever seen, (and that includes one at Stratford on Avon.)

The plot, under the able and inventive direction of Daniela Varon, proceeds with rapid fire wit and outrageous and surprising physical agility on the part of the actors.

Shakespeare set his play in Messina, Sicily, that hot volcanic island; Varon has moved the time to the 1950's, which makes plausible the surly threats of the Mafioso that can temporarily disrupt the swooning dancing to the music of Sinatra. Villains can seem dangerous and almost succeed, but the the wooings and the sparrings of lovers can in the end prove to have been much ado about nothing and all ends well, as it should.

There are two seemingly incompatible plots, and two sets of lovers.

Beatrice (Paula Langton) and Benedick (Allyn Burrows) are two strong personalities who regard each other as combatants, not partners, and spar from the first scene until the last. Both wittily profess to scorn matrimony, but each is tricked by friends into believing the other is secretly in love with her/him. Although they remain reluctant lovers until the last line of the play, their verbal punning is a delight.

Their slow dwindling into matrimony is inadvertently helped along by a second, and very different, plot involving another pair of lovers, Claudio (Mark Saturno) and Hero (Stephanie Dodd). Claudio decides to woo the beautiful Hero (after carefully ascertaining she is her father's heir), but is duped into believing her unchaste and spurns her at the altar.

Beatrice, indignant at the slur on the honor of her friend Hero, shames a reluctant Benedick into agreeing to a duel with Claudio. However, this is a zany comedy, and the Watch (police) Dogberry (Jonathan Epstein), inept though he and his men are, saves the day, exposing the villains, although so bumblingly that another subplot, involving the supposed death of Hero, goes forward, canceling the duel, making a repentant Claudio be led to the altar to wed a substitute bride, who under the veil proves to be Hero.

At this joyous moment, Benedict can finally agree that marriage is the thing, that the race should go on, and that all the much ado has proved to be about something. As the entire cast from the various plots and sub plots dance spiritedly to Susan Dibble's delightful choreography, even the just end of the villain Don John (Jason Asprey), whose spiteful machinations have stirred up near-tragedy, can only stop the dancing a moment as the mafia deliver his remains, clothing and a dead fish, tactfully accepted by his brother.

Then the joyous dancing can go on again. And everyone lives happily ever-after, although one has the feeling that the sparring of Beatrice and Benedict may lead to zesty marriage in which the woman will continue to have her say.

This production has a great deal going for it. The strong cast in all its zany doings is held in check by those two seasoned actors, Malcolm Ingram as Leonato, Governor of Sicily, and Jonathan Croy as Don Pedro, a Sicilian Prince. Although both participate in the farce that swirls about them, they weld the unwieldy into place with deft command, creating believable characters in the midst of all the confusion.

Productions of Much Ado often depend on the casting of Beatrice and Benedick. The play is one of a trio of "middle comedies" (including Twelfth Night and As you Like It) in which, for the first time, women tend to dominate the wit and word play. The sparring of the lovers created a model for women in a society that formerly regarded a woman's best attributes to be silence and a low-keyed voice.

Burrows, the more seasoned actor, seems to win in this production, although Langton gives him a run for his money, delivering the witty lines that bring the laughs. She captures her man, but he delights us more along the way. At times she seems a bit shrill, lacks an underlying gentle lure. One could wish her to have a bit more of Rosalind or Viola in her, and not be almost akin to Kate, shrew of that earlier play whose tongue was all bite. Although her scene of being duped into hearing of Benedick's love for her (played among the laundry) is amusing, it lacks the absolute delight of his scene of being duped, played beside the fountain with music.

Meanwhile, Burrows is so versatile that one is half-way through the play before remembering he is the same actor who last season was such a stalwart Henry V. It is a delight to see him yield so apparently effortlessly to farce and to play it with such abandon. He can wade barefoot through a fountain or give himself horns with an upside-down stool; he can rail against writing poetry or climb the scaffolding. No moment is dull when he is on the stage.

Jason Asprey as Don Pedro's wicked brother Don John is as surly a villain as one could ever meet. His stance, his every gesture, and above all his slightly accented speech, stamp him as a bad one as soon as he enters. His role is a secondary one, but he makes every entrance count, and makes the audience remember him with a dead fish at the curtain call. It has been a pleasure to watch this young actor develop over the years.

Hero as written is charming but no match for Beatrice. Stephanie Dodd does well creating a character who is engaging, has few lines but swirls along the plot. As Claudio, Saturno has a larger role but a mainly unsympathetic one which he handles capably. As written he is something of a puppet and Saturno makes him more, stressing his opportunistic side.

Singer Daniel Sherman doubles in several supporting roles, but stands out vocally. His standing in for Sinatra is a joy, and his rendiition of "Sigh No More," set to original music by Sherrill Reynolds, is sheer lovliness.

Johnny Lee Davenport always comes though; he can be an agile villain for Don John but in the end believably protect the maid Margaret whom he lured unwittingly into the plot against Hero.

And then there is Dogberry. In the past I have always found Dogberry and his band of inept men dreary, had always wished their scenes could be cut to the bone, had felt that Shakespeare's idea of thus clowning for the groundlings was perhaps suited to his day but not to ours. How could such boobies be funny?

In this production they are incredibly funny. Jonathan Epstein suddenly seems enormous and lives up to his plumed hat as he keeps reminding anyone who will listen that he is an ass. With Dogberry he adds a new character to the handsome chain of unusual and vital characters he has developed over the years - each so different, each so vital and so creatively conceived. To describe what he and his men do and how they use the stage facilities must be seen to be believed.

The new configuration of the space at the Founders, thrusting the stage much deeper into the pit and making for even more audience surround space works well and the setting by Cameron Anderson is radiant. The white floor and skillfully lit façade background seem marble, dappled with sunlight. And the scrims behind the windows of yellow flowers provide marvelous shadow sites for eaves-droppers or villains when back-lit.

All in all, this play works. The cast seemed to love doing it, and the standing ovation of the audience, which clapped wildly all through the dancing of the finale, seemed to love it too.