Theater Review: ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ - Definitely something to see

By Shar Adams
Epoch Times Staff

WASHINGTON—There is still time to see it—a wonderful, lively production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. The show has been so successful that it has been extended until Jan. 7.

Directed by Ethan McSweeny who returns to his hometown from New York, this production of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy will engage all ages, including seniors prone to snoring and humphing teens with the wriggles.

Shakespeare set “Much Ado” on the hot and humid island of Sicily, but McSweeny has moved the plot to the similarly tropical island of Cuba in the late 1920s and early ’30s.

The strong morality of the Catholic Church at that time provides the appropriate setting, says McSweeny in the director notes, “where wooing, wedding and repenting have mortal stakes.”

That intensity is counterbalanced not only by the Spanish Latin influence, which is hinted at in Shakespeare’s conception through names and words in the play, but also in Cuban society at that time which was at once a “melting pot of different cultures” and a community torn between the haves and have-nots.

“There is a stark divide in a way that is rare in Shakespearean comedy,” says McSweeny.

Unusual among lovers in Shakespeare’s plays, the central characters—Beatrice and Benedick—are not young, hormonal heartthrobs but adults with a declared disdain for marriage and a sizzling wit to dispatch any notion of sentimentality.

The roles are ably handled by Tony Award nominees Kathryn Meisle and Derek Smith, who have both Broadway and Shakespeare Theatre Company credits. Their delivery is razor sharp and more than a match for any social media conversation, drawing laughs and snickers from all corners of the theater.

Their foils, the two young lovers caught in a web of family intrigue, provide all the life-and-death tension to the plot while down-to-earth characters—watchmen Dogberry (Ted van Griethuysen), Verges (Floyd King), and Jose Frijoles (Carlos Gonzalez)—provide plenty of earthy, comic relief.

The brilliance of this production, however, lies in the clever combination of dialogue, color, and action. McSweeny skillfully interweaves the music, song, and dance of Latin American culture with the Shakespearean text.

Set design by Lee Savage and costumes by Clint Ramos are rich in both Cuban color and colonial appeal and yet do not distract from the thrust of the action. And of that there is plenty—with wonderful samba and salsa sequences choreographed by Broadway’s Marcos Santana and his associate Alison Solomon, and plenty of conga drumming, guitar strumming, and singing.

Snorers and wrigglers do not have a chance.

For a really enjoyable night out, Much Ado About Nothing is definitely ado about something.