Close to being essentially the most enjoyable you’ll be able to have in a theatre proper now, Jamie Lloyd’s Much Ado About Nothing is pure pleasure with Hayley Atwell and Tom Hiddleston at Theatre Royal Drury Lane
“Everybody dance now!”
Opening to the sound of Taylor Dayne’s ‘Tell It To My Heart’, it’s clear that this ain’t going to be your common Much Ado About Nothing. Indeed, from the second you enter Theatre Royal Drury Lane and see the pink confetti peeking from underneath the curtain and the multicoloured lighting washing the auditorium, it’s clear that this ain’t going to be your common Jamie Lloyd manufacturing both, a minimum of by the color palette of a lot his latest work. What you get right here is one thing considerably extra joyous than just about anybody may have imagined, a contemporary fandango of a manufacturing that’s largely irresistible from the off.
Initially closely offered on the casting of Hayley Atwell and Tom Hiddleston as Beatrice and Benedick, their present Marvel fame (amusingly referenced right here) proves far much less vital than their emergence as pure successors to Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh. They’re each established stage actors of previous and are completely bringing their A-game right here, it doesn’t matter what they’re requested to do. His cocksure preening and her pointed self-confidence are superbly essayed of their opening dance battle (obvs) however as they converse, the richness of their verse talking is plain – simply take heed to how Atwell’s register drops as she sighs “I know you of old”. It is simply beautiful work.
It’s married to director Jamie Lloyd chopping unfastened for as soon as, adopting an European directorial aesthetic as soon as once more however with an East London filter (this manufacturing absolutely exists in a shared universe with Max Webster’s latest The Importance of Being Earnest). Soutra Gilmour’s design strips again your entire stage to warehouse-like depth, carpets it with sacks of pink confetti and contours up some utilitarian chairs you might recognise. With barely a prop to be seen and the world of the play relocated to some type of prolonged household perform, insofar as there may be any over-riding conceit, the primary half racks up the 90s home (C&C Music Factory and Deee-Lite) and has an absolute ball.
From Tim Steed’s Don John turning right into a villain by shedding a sport of musical chairs, to the animal head masks, to the headlong rushes throughout the stage, to the enormous inflatable coronary heart that drops from the sky, there’s simply an exuberant sense of enjoyable, none extra so than within the gulling scenes. With nothing however confetti to work with firstly, Hiddleston is correctly humorous again and again, particularly as soon as that coronary heart will get concerned. And Lloyd is canny sufficient to know to not try to repeat that, flipping the next scene in order that we simply get a good give attention to Beatrice’s response to what she’s overhearing, a masterclass in reactive appearing from Atwell – it’s all simply so good!
Post-interval, the identical degree isn’t fairly maintained because the manufacturing wavers just a bit because it contemplates what to do with Shakespeare’s plotting. The Watch scenes are properly utterly excised however on this trendy context, notions of purity and honour sit unusually and there’s no motive given as to why this Margaret doesn’t simply ‘fess up straight away, choosing instead to give agonised mugging for most of a lengthy scene. The playlist goes a little haywire too, bringing Missy Elliott and David Guetta (featuring Kelly Rowland) into the mix when I’d’ve caught with the likes of Urban Cookie Collective and Corona that performed in the course of the interval (fairly actually the sound of my childhood!).
But that is splitting hairs in one thing that delights in being so freely entertaining. There’s frivolity, from Leonato and the Friar almost getting it on to Hiddleston ripping his shirt off; there’s thoughtfulness within the cleverness of Jon Clark’s lighting someway making the ground look nearly like a lunar panorama when issues do get a bit darkish; there’s a reminder of how simply how good All-4-One’s ‘I Swear’ is as Mason Alexander Park delivers a lot of the singing dwell. After the dourness that was The Tempest, this arrives as an early burst of spring sunshine and a helpful reminder of Jamie Lloyd’s expertise and perception – there’s no-one else bringing Shakespeare to the stage fairly like this on this nation