Hooray! After the fabulously charming ‘A Sherlock Holmes Christmas’, Wild Goose Theatre is back – this time at Oxford Castle & Prison for a summer run of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing ‘It’s full of passion and drama’ Let the battle of wits begin! Much Ado About Nothing gets a 1940s makeover at Oxford Castle.
Shortly before showtime, a huge group of teenage college students arrived, quickly creating a secondary drama: would the on stage action keep the attention-spanless Gen Z-ers off their phones?! I can’t remember being particularly partial to an evening of Shakespeare at that age myself so the challenge was on.
However, as soon as army leader Don Pedro and his gang, dressed in leather flying jackets and aviator shades, swaggered in to meet Leonato and his female entourage (Hero and Beatrice), we were all equally hooked.
If you haven’t seen it, Much Ado is the quirky tale of two couples, and how they eventually get together after meddling friends and foes either try to bring them together or force them apart.
Rachael Twyford and Billy Morton as Beatrice and Benedick are respectively sassy and hilariously pompous, their verbal jousting a real highlight of the play.
As these two are tricked into love, poor Claudio and Hero are tricked out of it by scheming Don John, creepily played by Mark Fiddaman, although – spoiler alert – everything still ends happily.
The 1940s setting works a treat, couples jiving to Glen Miller’s in The Mood and quaffing whiskey at the masked ball, but it’s the chemistry between the cast that really impresses – their emotions relayed so pivotally through movement, body language, facial expression and spacial awareness.
And as all confusions were ironed out in this polished, cool and funny production, guess what?! The college kids stayed off their mobile phones! Take a bow Wild Goose Theatre; you can’t get higher approval than that!
Edward Bliss
Much Ado About Nothing runs at Oxford Castle until August 2. Book here https://www.oxfordcastleandprison.co.uk/events/event/much-ado-about-nothing/
