#maad

To begin with, one must consider how ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ - I do not subscribe to the Love’s Labour's Won idea much myself - would have been perceived back in the day. Funny, sexy, uncouth, outrageous. In light of this, much of the Jamie Lloyd Co’s production makes sense.

Upon our arrival at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane - a suitably historic and grand venue for such an iconic work by the Bard - we perused the selection of merchandise, instantly purchasing programmes and tote bags (we went back for pins later). Everything is pink. Our seats were the cheap ones, up in the gods (to which my mother said “well of course, you’re a goddess”), and we stopped in the loos as we made our way up. Music began to play in every part of the theatre, starting with Sophie Ellis Bextor’s ‘If This Ain’t Love (Groovejet)’. That’s when we knew it was going to be a damn good time.

The second we stepped into the auditorium, we were confronted with banging bass, pink lighting, and disco balls. We could see the edge of the stage, covered in pink confetti. The house music continued to play as we found our seats, and we were pleasantly surprised to find we could actually see 90% of the stage.

A school group came and sat in front of us, aged no more than fifteen. The teachers would go on to regret their decision as the show went on.

The music stopped suddenly.

The lights went out.

The show started.

The whole stage was revealed, also covered in pink confetti - which proved to be more than an aesthetic choice. Beatrice, Margaret (a non-binary icon), Hero, Leonato, and Borachio appear sat on plain plastic chairs, and Hayley Atwell began with Beatrice’s scathing description of Benedick. She perfected the exasperated talk of Benedick and Claudio - “God help the noble Claudio” - and I was pleased to see that they stuck to the original text, only removing or adding lines where absolutely necessary.

“Don Pedro is approached” - cue ‘Fight for your Right’ by Beastie Boys. The men appear, including the one we have all been waiting for. They dance, they pose, they set the chaotic and playful tone for the rest of the show.

Claudio (James Phoon) is the perfect himbo dimepiece in a matching shiny jacket and trousers, accompanied by Tom Hiddleston in some impeccably tailored blue dress trousers and a flimsy-looking shirt. There is hugging and kissing and all manner of flirting. Hayley Atwell’s apathetic Beatrice sits and watches. One thing I particularly enjoyed was how much the production leans into Shakespeare’s hints of a previous relationship between Beatrice and Benedick, in that they are explicitly exes.

They fight. It’s sexy and sarcastic and ridiculous. When Benedick says “It is certain I am loved of all ladies”, Tom Hiddleston turns to the audience and every woman with a pulse screams and cheers. This is the first time I have ever seen ‘Much Ado’ in a theatre, I have only ever watched recorded productions before, and I laughed out loud and harder more than I thought I would. I must say the line “scratching could not make it worse an ‘twere such a face as yours were” is hysterical when aimed at someone as genuinely beautiful as Hiddleston.

“I know you of old” is the moment when I realised they were really going for the exes thing and I loved it. I think it actually makes it all make more sense if they’re old flames.

The ten chairs for the ten cast members are placed in a line on the stage, and Claudio walks forward, Benedick lounging in a chair with everyone else. The friendship and brotherhood between the pair of them was so believable, the himboic Claudio and the smarmy-but-in-a-hot-way Benedick. I also liked that Hero is still on the stage at this point, so Claudio can stare wistfully at her and Benedick can look with disdain at his friend and the object of said friend’s affection.

Don Pedro is dressed all in pink, is explicitly bisexual, and is hotter than any Don Pedro has the right to be.

Tom Hiddleston delivers the line “If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot at me” completely deadpan and it is perfect. He delivers it in the way I have been known to deliver the line “If I say I’m going to do a PhD, shoot me in the head”.

Don John starts his plotting. He is camp and ridiculous and it works so well - “Oh no I’ve scratched my loafer” - and the plot is brought into action. The loafer line is brought about by the brothers being the last two left in a round of musical chairs, and Don Pedro pushes his brother to the floor. It is childish and chaotic and works so well.

All the while, there are little scenes between this where they dance and cause chaos, occasionally ‘scooby-doo’ running across the stage to some loud and bright brass music.

When Beatrice is describing the man for her - beard or no beard - she picks people out of the audience to point at.

“He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man - sorry” She says, turning to the man in the audience without a beard that she had picked out.

The party scene begins, with big animal and creature heads fitted to each cast member to disguise their identity so chaos can occur. Beatrice has a cat head, Benedick a dog. Margaret flirts outrageously with Benedick and it is wonderful. Don Pedro seduces Hero for Claudio, which leads to Hero grinding on Don Pedro in the background whilst Beatrice and Benedick have their conversation, Tom Hiddleston doing an impeccable Scottish accent to disguise his identity.

Claudio’s got the wrong end of the stick - himbo that he is - and he is about as good at processing his emotions as any man in his early 20s with a penchant for partying. He has been convinced by the villains that Don Pedro has seduced Hero for himself - and to be fair after seeing their dancing you can understand it - and Benedick tries to understand why he has been nicknamed the Prince’s Jester.

Beatrice appears, and seems to be a little wistful for times gone by - “he lent it me a while, and I gave him use of it”. Again, they lean on the fact that Beatrice and Benedick were exes and it adds a depth to the scene that one could have argued would not have been there without it.

Don John and Borachio organise their plan to make Hero unsuitable for Claudio.

Then is Benedick alone on the stage, talking about the woman for him. Hiddleston picks out women in the audience the way Hayley Atwell did, finding a ‘fair’ woman, a ‘wise’ woman, and a ‘virtuous’ woman (he pointed to the balcony at this point and I am choosing to believe he was pointing at me, but lets not unpack that).

Benedick hides himself incredibly stupidly in any production of ‘Much Ado’, but the pink confetti quickly became less of a decoration and more of a prop as Hiddleston dropped to the floor and covered himself in confetti as best he could, spitting confetti in shock at what they say, appearing to cover his dignity with confetti whilst hiding. It was hysterical, especially as he attempted to move about the stage, rolling around and hiding behind the giant inflatable heart. The best moment was when he jumped down a trapdoor in the stage to hide, climbing back out later in the scene. This is Benedick’s moment to be a himbo and it is incredible, the tone perfect. The whole production plays on the ridiculousness and chaotic nature of Shakespeare’s text and this is a perfect scene to demonstrate that.

Beatrice appears to bid Benedick come in for dinner. He pops a button on his shirt, affects a deeper ‘sexier’ voice, and lunges, showing off his excellent legs. When she says “you have no stomach, sir”, he rips his shirt open and again every woman with a pulse screams. Beatrice runs, flustered.

It’s Beatrice’s turn to hide ridiculously and it again is chaotic and the giant inflatable heart is used to great effect. There is a hilarious moment when ‘pictures’ of Beatrice and Benedick are fetched as in the text, but they are cardboard cutouts of Atwell as Captain Carter and Hiddleston as Loki. They know they have superstars in their cast and they are not afraid to exploit that at every opportunity.

The friendships between Don Pedro, Benedick, and Claudio work so well, the good natured needling and bullying that comes with every friendship is totally believable. You do forget that they’re castmates, not best friends. This scene between them is also set up as Claudio’s stag do, to great effect - stupid beer hats and all.

They do cut the Dogberry and Verges scenes from the play and honestly I think it’s better for it. I have found with other productions that they do take you out of it, but I’m sure they made much more sense when the play was written. They adapt the lines so Borachio explains what is going to happen between himself and Margaret and that’s all that’s needed. It keeps the chaos flowing.

Borachio and Margaret then proceed to have sex on the table, and the school teachers begin to regret their decision to bring a group of teenagers to see this. Clearly they hadn’t done their research into this particular production, though the website does say suitable for 12+.

Margaret really comes into their own - I have so far forgotten to mention that they have the most incredible singing voice - and the pre-wedding scenes are sweet and fun but deep too. They turn some of the scenes into a hen do and it is glorious.

And so, the wedding. Claudio is very, very angry - perhaps slightly too angry but considering how much of a himbo they’re playing him as, it works - and Hero does manage to hold her own. Leonato similarly is fuming and unrelenting and again, it works. He has already proved earlier to be an emotional man and the decisions all make sense.

Benedick clears up the chaos, and Beatrice cries. I really liked that they gave Beatrice time to cry, to be emotional. This scene is my favourite in the whole play and arguably my favourite scene ever written by Shakespeare. The whole theatre is silent as Beatrice and Benedick declare their love for each other.

“I do love nothing in the world so well as you”

Then, Hayley Atwell gives a powerhouse performance, kickstarted by the simple line - “Kill Claudio”. A brief “huh?” from Benedick is the last bit of comic relief for a few minutes as Beatrice has her moment. This scene is always powerful, Beatrice repeating the phrase “God, that I were a man”. She screams “I would eat his heart in the marketplace”, which is always the line that I think makes or breaks a Beatrice, and she does it perfectly. Anger reverberates off her and Benedick cannot help but be caught in her blast radius.

I really liked the decision they made with the next scenes, discussion around Claudio’s marrying Leonato’s ‘niece’ - with Hero herself under the table watching everything, the rest of the cast sitting at the side of the stage. I appreciate that she is there, as her ‘death’ hangs over the characters and she is present in spirit if not physically, and so to have her there watching everything really works.

The funeral scene is cut, also for the better. Margaret and Benedick have a moment, Margaret taking their chance to get their hands all over Tom Hiddleston to great comedic effect.

Benedick begins to try and write his poem for her, but they make the most of this by having him sing the first verse of ‘I Want It That Way’ by Backstreet Boys. He is almost too good of a singer to pull off the comedy of the moment but it works. They also linger on the word “horn” as Benedick is reading out what he has attempted to write, with smirks and giggles from the audience confirming that the emphasis on dirty jokes is paying off (they also emphasise the word “come” quite a lot later on, to the same effect).

As Benedick asks Beatrice, who has appeared, which of his ‘bad parts’ did she first fall in love with, he again pops a button on his shirt. Hayley Atwell makes Tom Hiddleston get on his knees and it not only works for the scene and their dynamic but also worked for the audience. You could hear hearts beat a little faster.

They sit on the floor together, entangled, necking like teenagers, with Margaret appearing to usher them inside. They are exasperated with their pair, gesturing for them to come inside a few times.

The costume heads are back for the wedding to disguise the three women, this time Beatrice with an octopus on her head. Margaret briefly tries to replace Beatrice at the wedding - they have spent the whole play being chaotically horny for Benedick - but is yanked back.

They play the comedic nature perfectly, balancing it with the emotion of the scene. The line “come, I will have thee, but by this light I will take thee for pity” elicits hoots of laughter from the audience once again.

All the dancing throughout the show pays off at the end, as Benedick says “Let’s have a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts and our wives’ heels”.

Margaret belts out ‘When Love Takes Over’ as everyone dances ridiculously and brilliantly and sexily. They get the audience up on their feet to dance too, the glitter balls covering the theatre in light. It briefly feels like being in a nightclub and it’s the perfect closing to a show full of joy and fun and sex and chaos.

To me, it feels like they have managed to replicate in a very modern way how ‘Much Ado’ would have been received by the original Elizabethan audiences, updating the level of sex and dirty jokes to a comparable level.

Everyone in the cast is amazing, but the standouts really are Hayley Atwell and Tom Hiddleston - and not just because of their fame. They are perfectly cast and they play it so well, convincing as sparring partners and as lovers and as friends to the other characters. The simple nature of the staging also works, it allows the words and the performances to shine through in a huge theatre. It could have been easy for it to get lost in such a venue, but the simplicity works. Aesthetically the show is glorious, the soundtrack is a banger (there is a playlist on spotify of songs featured), and every single cast member is perfect for their part.

Could this be one of the best ‘Much Ado’ productions ever? I think so. I can’t see it being bettered any time soon.