Salisbury Playhouse – until 23rd March 2019.
Reviewed by Leanne Caplis
4****
Northern Broadsides and New Vic Theatre bring to the stage the romantic Shakespeare comedy Much Ado About Nothing. Starting its UK tour in Scarborough on the 12th May the show will run at various venues until Saturday 25th May where it finishes at the Harrogate Theatre.
The war is now over will the returning soldiers find their true love, or will there be destruction? This brilliant stage adaption brings together music, song and comedy to play out the storyline.
Sarah Kameela Impey made for a very beautiful ‘Hero’. Her innocence shone through and she portrayed very realistic emotions making her role very believable. Her voice is beautiful although, as the show is microphone free, her voice was quiet at times.
The star of the show for me was Benedick (Robin Simpson). His comedy timing is genius and his acting skills first class. His love/hate scenes with Beatrice (Isobel Middelton) were my favourite parts of the show and the chemistry between them is very realistic. A special mention for Linford Johnson (Claudio) who I think is one to watch for the future; a rising star.
I loved how the cast were also the musicians and I really enjoyed seeing the instruments being played on stage. The cast all had great singing voices and I would have liked to have heard more of them.
I have to work hard to find any negatives for this production. If I was to be picky I would say the staging and props were very basic; the backdrop didn’t change throughout making it difficult to keep up with where the scene was being played out. Additionally, at almost three hours, the production was perhaps 30 minutes too long.
For those, like me, who might think they wouldn’t enjoy something by Shakespeare I urge them to give this production a go. It’s a great introduction to the works of Shakespeare and I won’t be put off going seeing anything of this nature in future.