Review: Much Ado About Nothing at Mounds Theater

Two years ago Fearless Comedy shut down their production of William Shakespeare’s classic Much Ado About Nothing . Instead of tiptoeing around like most theaters, Fearless is braving through with this play and more ahead.

Much Ado About Nothing is generally considered one of Shakespeare's best comedies, because it combines elements of robust hilarity with themes of honor, shame, and court politics. The play revolves around two romantic pairings that emerge, when a group of soldiers arrive in the town. Captain Benedick(Phillip D. Henry) and Beatrice(Suzanne Victoria Cross) are tricked into confessing their love for each other and Claudio(William Edson) has a misunderstanding about his love interest, the Hero(Nicole Laurenne). 

It's a brave move for any theater to take on a play by Shakespeare, as the texts take a great deal of focus, to perform. In this adaptation, actors did not use a stage, but instead performed on the floor at Mounds Theater with the audience sitting in a semi-circle of chairs. Being that the audience is in such close proximity, it's almost as if the actors were speaking directly to patrons, as if to say: we know you’re there, I hope you like what you see.

Setting the play during 16th century Shakespeare's time limits what a director can do. This adaptation was set during wartime, made clear by ragtime music and dancing. Lights were dimmed with a hint of blue (light design by Steffen Moeller). The characters wore military uniforms, berets and rayon dresses.

The set consisted of a chandelier and a few hanging stars. The characters didn’t seem to need many props or backgrounds. Instead they used their entire bodies, laying under benches with their heads peeking out to show an exaggerated form of spying. Or inching their way across the stage in an army crawl hiding behind something as simple as a lantern. They completely took the audience by surprise as they dropped buckets to create a ruckus. Their scuffles behind closed curtains created a sense of mystery. They often shouted lines off stage from balconies, or entered a scene with a massive amount of energy and vigor (fight and intimacy choreography by H. Ashley).

By the second act, I was able to adjust to the classic language and became familiar with each character and their role. The audience is allowed to hear the dialogue exactly as written but actors spoke with their own nuanced interpretations, often putting emphasis on single words that mean something entirely different nowadays. A line like this is especially funny: “You have to put him down my Lord, you have to put him down.” In this line Don Pedro is encouraging Beatrice to entrap her lover. 

Fearless did an amazing job of adapting their play for a modern audience, and the energy in this production was unlike anything I've seen before.

Come and see the play Much Ado About Nothing, upcoming shows May 12th,13th, and 14th. Tickets at moundstheatre.org Fearless will also be continuing their Murder on the Mississippi show on June 24th and 25th and July 15th and 16th.