Shakespeare in the Roaring Twenties
By Elsa Johnson & Victor Lucas
We went to see Much Ado About Nothing at the Hanna and enjoyed it very much. The language, on the page archaic and bogged down with footnotes, came tripping off the actors’ tongues. Even our ancient ears heard every word clearly. While our memory of plot was a bit foggy — after all, Shakespeare in college was 50 years ago — and our memories of the 1993 movie of Much Ado starring Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson were a bit dim — thanks to the sparkling production at the Hanna we understood every turn of the plot and laughed along with every joke.
For those who want a synopsis, Much Ado begins with the good war over. Bad news there is none. Young Claudio has distinguished himself in combat and now looks with an amorous eye on Governor Leonato’s daughter and heir, Hero. Another couple, Beatrice and Benedick, are clearly preoccupied with each other even if bitter feelings from a previous relationship cause them to bicker with entertaining wit and persistence. (See our review of Two Hearts, prequel to Much Ado, here.)
The play could easily end happily in a few scenes except for Don John, Leonato’s bastard brother and one of Shakespeare’s self-declared plain-dealing villains. John’s machinations start a seemingly irreversible slide toward discord and ruin, giving this play some of the darkest undertones of any of Shakespeare’s comedies, until salvation arrives from — the unlikeliest of quarters — Constable Dogberry and the Watch, who set everything back on track to a happy ending.
Thank heaven for those villains. For happiness writes in white, and without villains and the sorrow they engender, all literature would be but sparkling blank pages.
This production of Much Ado is set in the Roaring Twenties, which means one delightful surprise after another with 20’s costume, music, and dance. Scenes begin and end with a few bars of music and, if you don’t recognize the period of any given tune, the hiss and pop characteristic of old gramophone recordings places the scene unmistakably in the 20’s. Sincere praise to Sound Designer Stephen LeGrand who provided the richly satisfying play list.
Shakespeare’s song in Act II Scene III proved an unexpected delight, performed not as a faux renaissance madrigal with lutes, but as a jazzy ditty accompanied by ukuleles. Eric Damon Smith’s Balthasar provided vocal stylings richly informed by 20’s films. And on ukulele, Laurie Birmingham’s Antonia, who was full of surprises in this show, playing a demure first lady to Governor Leonato throughout, but rising — as the best first ladies do — to occasion after occasion.
For the costume party scene that opens Act II, Cassandra Bissell’s Beatrice enters a la Dietrich in top hat and tux. J. Todd Adams’ Benedick wears a costume from the Arabian Nights and dances a hilarious riff from vaudeville orientalia. The entire cast joins in to do 20’s social dances.
Even David McCann’s dignified Governor Leonato and David Anthony Smith’s venerable Don Pedro deliver a dapper song and dance number that takes us back to the golden years of vaudeville. Kudos to Choreographer Martin Cespedes, a perennial in Cleveland’s theater scene, and to the talented cast who brought forth their inner hoofers.
But who will foil Don John’s evil plan? Enter Dougfred Miller’s Dogberry on the largest tricycle we’ve ever seen. Who found that tricycle? Who drew the hilarious graphics on the flip-chart Dogberry uses to instruct his watch? Shakespeare provided the script, but in this Much Ado everyone including the uncredited props person dug down to deliver a most enjoyable production of Shakespeare.
We find it interesting how truly human feelings, relations, and interactions read despite four centuries in between. And while some interpretations of Shakespeare from the Renaissance into the relatively contemporary seem strained, this one seemed so only rarely, and when it did, it more often seemed a result of attitudes that did not travel the centuries well.
As for example, when Claudio and the Prince learn that Hero has died, they are indifferent, because it is merely the death of dishonored woman. And when Claudio is offered a new bride (and a fortune) as punishment, it hardly seems that. By contemporary mores he is let off the hook far too easily, although the recent trial in Steubenville suggests attitudes have changed perhaps not as much as we would like.
A second quibble was the Director’s decision to disfigure the villain, Don John, as though the disfigurement of his character had to have some outward form. We found it not just unecessary but excessive.
Much Ado About Nothing, Directed by Sharon Ott, is presented by Great Lakes Theater at the Hanna Theatre through April 14. Tickets here or call 216-241-6000 or visit the PlayhouseSquare Ticket Office.
We saw the show on Sat 3/30/13.
From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas. Elsa and Vic are both longtime Clevelanders. Elsa is a landscape designer. She studied ballet as an avocation for 2 decades. Vic has been a dancer and dance teacher for most of his working life, performing in a number of dance companies in NYC and Cleveland. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.