MUCH ADO FOR NOTHING
Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank
Shakespeare's Globe

14 March 2008

Much Ado About Nothing in a 95 minute version, without interval, playing to 10,000 students over the week.

Globe Education's production, directed by Jo Howarth, is loud and lively. And for the schools' matinees it needs to be. The uninhibited audience, sometimes reluctant attenders, sometimes well prepared, expects to be entertained and to make its contribution.
Dogberry and Co are less successful perhaps than Benedick [Bill Buckhurst] and his army, all laddishness and fatigues, kicking a ball about on the piazza before the show, shouting and shoving, just like any Friday night in Colchester.
The humour and the nuances came over better in the evening, when the kids were outnumbered by real punters - although this performance too was free of charge, and the actors could really relish the words and the unique atmosphere of the Globe.