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Much Ado About Nothing

Published Wednesday 19 December 2007 at 13:30 by John Thaxter

Zoe Wanamaker and Simon Russell Beale, an unexpectedly attractive pairing as Beatrice and Benedick despite his girth and their passing years, are not the first to show that romance can still flourish beyond life’s midsummer.

And their late-blooming love affair adds depth and poignancy to those sparring, defensive hints at a back story of lost opportunities.

As Beale secretly eavesdrops on his chums, Nicholas Hytner’s witty production has him plummeting deep into a plunge pool to avoid detection, then boldly strutting, water-sodden, as a man suddenly smitten by love, a trick neatly turned on Ms Wanamaker a few minutes later. But their relationship is also beautifully developed in words and warm face-to-face encounters that truly hold the moment.

This is another Hytner whirligig staging, as if reaching out for filmic motion, making constant, even disconcerting use of the Olivier revolve to change the scene and mood, masked charades and swirling crowds thronging the streets of Messina in a slatted design by Vicki Mortimer, to the sound of loud music and whooping dance.

Led by Julian Wadham’s excellent soldier prince and soured by Andrew Woodall as his villainous brother, there is a strong sense of a garrison town where officers’ mess attitudes can fuel the cruel trick played on the virginal Hero by Daniel Hawksford’s macho Claudio - an unusually savage confrontation at the altar. Later we see him erotically spread-eagled in sackcloth across her supposed grave. But the memory of his brutality casts a shadow over an otherwise joyful marital reconciliation scene.

Casting in depth gives us a fine Leonato by Oliver Ford Davies with John Burgess as his brother, while Mark Addy cleverly plays Dogberry dead straight, accompanied by Trevor Peacock as his gaga sidekick Verges. But the final cheers belong to the central couple and their delightful stage partnership.

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