Much Ado About Nothing – Shakespeare Done Right By Tina Arth

Cast of Much Ado About Nothing

I rarely laugh out loud while watching productions of Shakespeare’s comedies. Don’t get me wrong - it’s not that the prolific playwright didn’t write some funny stuff in the late 16thcentury, or that his comic sensibility is now so out of date that the jokes just cannot land some 400+ years later. The problem is that contemporary companies don’t always put in the necessary work to make sure that I and my fellow audience members will see and respond to the humor.  That said, I laughed my ass off at the closing performance of Canon Shakespeare Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing. Yeah – it was that good. Director Ira Kortum definitely “put in the work” – which includes acknowledging that most of the folks in the audience don’t even begin to approach his grasp of the material, and going above and beyond to ensure that his cast members bring everything they’ve got to their roles.

 

Kortum’s curtain speech set the tone brilliantly – he was informal, humorous, accessible without being patronizing, and expository without being didactic.  The show that followed never dragged despite its length – in large part, I think, because the actors were allowed to take their time and put as much effort into physical comedy as they did into delivering (not just reciting) their lines.

 

The story is somewhat less convoluted than many Shakespearean comedies, and there are serious moments where the actors convey real depth of emotion. To briefly summarize, Don Pedro and his men, Claudio and Benedick, visit Leonato, Duke of Messina. Claudio falls in love with Leonato’s daughter Hero, while Benedick engages in a vicious war of words and wit with Leonato’s niece, Beatrice – both of them claim to hate the idea of romance and marriage. The company conspires to trick Beatrice and Benedick into falling in love, while Don Pedro’s brother Don John plots to prevent Hero and Claudio from marrying. Shades of the earlier Taming of the Shrew? Yes, but without the misogynistic overtones – a much more satisfying tale for 2022!

 

For rofl comedy, the Tony (or its NoPo equivalent) definitely goes to Lauren Pickthorn (Beatrice) and Alec Henneberger (Benedick). They set the stage for their frenemy relationship from the beginning and took the physical humor as far as it could go – Lauren hurling herself over the platform/backdrop was a real show-stopper, and Alec’s wide-eyed lurking and peering from stage left was mesmerizing.

 

As mentioned above, there is a serious side to the play – the romance between Hero (Ariel Huntley) and Claudio (Rowan Dery), which is nearly derailed by the truly evil Don John (Kari Warfield). While Warfield’s broad performance is reminiscent of the classic villains of melodrama, Huntley and Dery play their roles with enough sincerity to make the audience care about their plight – in particular, Huntley’s agonized professions of innocence are really quite moving.

 

21st century productions of Much Ado are frequently updated in both time and place, presumably to make the story more relevant and engaging for the audience. Kortum’s choice which I much prefer, was to render the story essentially timeless – neither the set nor the costumes evoked any particular era or locale, which speaks to the timelessness of the principal conflicts. Couples still grapple with the tension between independence and loving partnership, infidelity/jealousy still haunt relationships, gender-based double standards still plague young lovers, and wise elders still try to mediate family disputes. Kudos to Canon Shakespeare Company for being confident enough to serve their Shakespeare up straight!

 

Canon Shakespeare Company, hosted at North Portland’s Twilight Theater, ran from September 22 through October 2. Watch their website for future offerings.