Much Ado About Nothing by Stratford Shakespeare Festival at the Festival Theatre (review)

Reviewed by: Much Ado About Nothingby Stratford Shakespeare Festival at the Festival Theatre Anna Hegland Much Ado About NothingPresented by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival at the Festival Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. 2905– 2710 2023. Directed by Chris Abraham. Additional text by Erin Shields. Designed by Julie Fox. Lighting design by Arun Srinivasan. Music and sound design by Thomas Ryder Payne. With Graham Abbey (Benedick), Anousha Alamian (Sexton), Akosua Amo-Adem (Ursula), Maev Beaty (Beatrice), Michael Blake (Don John), Déjah Dixon-Green (Margaret), Austin Eckert (Claudio), Allison Edwards-Crewe (Hero), Jakob Ehman (Borachio), John Kirkpatrick (Verges), Kevin Kruchkywich (Seacoal), Josue Laboucane (Dogberry), Cyrus Lane (Conrade), Patrick McManus (Leonato), Jameela McNeil (Member of the Watch/Attendant), Danté Prince (Hugh Oatcake/Valet), Glynis Ranney (Member of the Watch/Attendant), Anthony Santiago (Antonio), André Sills (Don Pedro), Gordon Patrick White (Friar Francis), Rylan Wilkie (Balthasar), and Micah Woods (Messenger). "It is exhaustingto be innocent." This was the message Maev Beaty's Beatrice gave the audience in Erin Shields's new opening scene for director Chris Abraham's Much Ado About Nothing. The line seemed to be the framing device through which the play's female characters were to be understood: there is more to women, Beatrice suggested, than virginity, prettiness, and the hope of a good marriage. The scene reminded me of Emilia's words to Desdemona in act one scene three of Othello: "And have not women affections? / Desires for sport? and frailty, as men have?" (4.3.99–100). But as Beatrice's words were juxtaposed with the image of Allison Edwards-Crewe as Hero admiring herself in front of a giant, lighted circular mirror, I worried that the message was being undercut before the play had begun. However, working to let go of the exhaustion of innocence opened up some opportunities for playfulness, especially for Margaret (Déjah Dixon-Green) and Ursula (Akosua Amo-Adem). The two women oozed confidence, as if they were free from the constraints of enforced innocence, an attitude that informed their engagement with Benedick (Graham Abbey) and the other military men. When Benedick asked Margaret to "bring my book hither to me," her matter-of-fact response that she was "here already, sir" was accompanied by an eye roll that showed how unimpressed she was by his attempts at charm. This moment, alongside Margaret and Ursula's rejection of Benedick's flirtations earlier in the play, meant that End Page 116his certainty that he was "loved of all ladies" in act one was met with the audience's laughter as all the women onstage physically turned away from him to focus their attention elsewhere. The production leaned into physical comedy, especially in the scenes where the love traps are set for Benedick and Beatrice. Benedick took advantage of the tiered platforms that made up Julie Fox's set, hiding below Don Pedro (André Sills) as the prince walked around the landscaped garden space. As he moved to better eavesdrop, Benedick fell down the steps of the garden, picked up a giant potted plant to shield him as he moved across the stage, and ducked for cover behind a large clay pot that he put to use later in the scene, dousing himself with water from it before Beatrice called him to dinner. Don Pedro, Claudio (Austin Eckert), and Leonato (Patrick McManus) seemed to enjoy watching Benedick attempt to conceal himself more than they enjoyed setting the trap for him, walking just close enough to make Benedick nervously move to a new hiding spot. While Benedick, for the most part, stayed downstage and in cahoots with the audience, Beatrice moved vertically and horizontally about the upstage space. When she walked into the conversation between Hero and Ursula, Beatrice's first instinct was to go up—she climbed through the gate to Leonato's house at the back of the stage, up the giant tree that dominated the set, and then scooted on her stomach across the platform that Hero had occupied with her mirror. The students I attended with gasped when Beatrice appeared to slip and nearly fall as she descended from her high perch, but they quickly laughed again when...