Remembering the trips I used to go on with my school to see, among others, plays by Shakespeare being put on in London, I met an audience filled mostly with school children with mixed reactions. Testament to the Oxford Triptych Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, however, the enraptured audience held happy witness to a solid performance of one of Shakespeare’s greatest works.
Set in post-war Paris, complete with oversized French flag, the actors move between a sparse café space on one side and a single bench on the other. Far from detracting from the production and requiring only two rapid scene changes, the pared down set plays into the pace with which we encounter each new Act and the rapidity of movement onstage. The wit and comedy of the piece, then, acts as focus. The actors project and articulate well, which means no jokes were lost. On the other hand, poignancy was sometimes problematic, with scenes of mixed emotion (Don Pedro’s rejected marriage proposal) and scenes of strong emotion (Hero’s ‘death’) needing much more forceful acting to bring through the unsettling mix of comedy and tragic pain. Focus on comedy paid off, however, with a superb Borachio (James Phillips) and an astounding Benedick (Will Hatcher) cutting across the action around them to deliver perfectly intonated lines and expressive reactions. The production saw Hatcher particularly hilarious hidden behind the giant French flag on hearing the news of Beatrice’s ‘love’.
The mixture of seasoned and student actors served to show just how much talent there is to be found in student acting. Hannah Lee playing Hero shone, from childish giggles to the sudden overflow of emotion from the wrongly accused. Likewise, Beatrice, played beautifully by Vicky Coleman, delivered her, “O that I were a man for his sake!”, with furious passion, raging against the tall figure of Benedick, an Act as much a credit to her as to the direction.
