Review: NT's Much Ado About Nothing

Earlier this month, I went with two friends to a cinema in Sheffield to watch a livestream of Much Ado About nothing by the National Theatre.

The National Theatre summarises the play much better than I can so I've included that below:

Escape to the Italian Riviera with a cast including Katherine Parkinson (Home, I'm Darling, The IT Crowd) and John Heffernan (Dracula, She Stoops to Conquer).

Since the 1930s, the legendary family-run Hotel Messina has been visited by artists, celebrities and royalty. 

When the current owner’s daughter falls for a dashing young soldier, the hallways are ringing with the sound of wedding bells. 

However, not all the guests are in the mood for love, and a string of deceptions soon surround not only the young couple, but also the steadfastly single Beatrice and Benedick.

*Spoilers for a 400-year-old play follow*

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I had a wonderful time and really enjoyed watching the play. I've always loved Much Ado About Nothing, it was the first Shakespeare play that I ever read and it's stuck with me ever since.

The one thing my teenage self found disappointing about the play was how Beatrice 'changes' when she falls in love with Benedick. This production of Much Ado About Nothing ensures that the independent, witty aspects of the character are still visible amongst the romance. I think Parkinson's portrayal of Beatrice is brilliant, especially in the brief interlude where Benedick believes she loves him, but she is unaware of the reciprocal.

The snarky relationship of Beatrice and Benedick is genuinely entertaining and plays out well on the stage. However, this production seems to give near-equal weighting to Hero and Claudio's relationship. Their relationship is much more memorable than in other productions of the play that I have seen, even if it lacks the witty banter seen between Beatrice and Benedick.

I also really enjoyed Phoebe Horn's portrayal of Margaret, Hero's lady's maid. While Margaret is used by Don John to convince Claudio of Hero's disloyalty, this is not the character's sole purpose in this production. Horn's portrayal of Margaret is undeniably funny, for example when she helps Hero convince Beatrice of Benedick's love. She speaks loudly, entirely for Beatrice's benefit as she overhears the conversation. To the audience, it's clear that Margaret fails at subtlety but Horn conveys this in a way that is extremely entertaining.

Additionally, I really liked that the musical elements of the play had lyrics taken from other Shakespeare plays, for example the first musical scene (at the party) used verse taken from The Tempest.

Definitely my favourite thing about the play was its accessibility. Because it was live-streamed to a venue in Sheffield, I was able to afford tickets and got to have a really nice experience. This same increase in accessibility has allowed me to see a variety of plays and a ballet in the past year. These are things I wouldn't be able to do if the production was limited to London.