Fresh ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ is giddy with love at APT
Daniele Tyler Mathews designed the costumes for “Much Ado About Nothing” at American Players Theatre. LIZ LAUREN
Benedick, that legendary Shakespearean enemy-to-lover, sounds like a girl whose Tinder date just texted her back.
“There’s a double meaning in that,” he says when Beatrice comes, irritably, to call him in to dinner. “If I do not love her, I am a fool.” He sighs. “I will go get her picture.”
A scene or two later, it’s Beatrice with the giddy grin, like a tween who just heard from her friends that her crush likes her too.
“Benedick, love on!” she squeals, swearing to tame her “wild heart.”
It’s enough to make any “Bridgerton” fan swoon. “Much Ado About Nothing,” Shakespeare’s most literary romance, enjoys a boldly colorful new production this season in the Hill Theatre. It runs in repertory at American Players Theatre through Sept. 29.
APT last put up “Much Ado” a decade ago, so a quick refresher on the story: on the coast of Sicily, a troop of soldiers returns from war and posts up at the house of the local governor, Leonato (Jim Ridge, expressive and fatherly).
Soldier Claudio has fallen for Hero, Leonato’s daughter. Soldier-prince Don Pedro (a regal Rasell Holt), has beef with his dastardly half-brother Don John (Casey Hoekstra), who literally says “I am a plain-dealing villain” before stirring up trouble between Claudio and Hero’s love match.
Marcus Truschinski, graying at the temples but no less dashing, plays lovestruck soldier Benedick, opposite feisty, sunny Jessica Ko as Beatrice, she who was “born to speak all mirth and no matter.”
Ko’s Beatrice is cut from the same cloth as Belle, Jo March and Anne of Avonlea. She’s smart and independent, disinclined toward marriage. Ko makes Beatrice’s words lift and spin, tossing witty remarks like she was born to Shakespearean prose, then grounds her feet to deliver some of the bard’s best lines.
“O God, that I were a man!” she growls. “I would eat his heart in the marketplace.”
The fun house mirror reflection of Beatrice and Benedick’s unpeaceful courtship is the pairing of Claudio (Ronald Román-Meléndez) and sweet, naïve Hero (Samantha Newcomb).
As imagined by Román-Meléndez, Claudio is self-conscious and shy, slanted more toward sad/hurt (thank god) than the ragey soldier this character often is. It’s some relief — at many “Much Ados,” I leave fretting that Hero is destined for a lifetime of abuse. (I’m just slightly less worried here.)
Directed with a sense of humor and an eye for emotional honesty by Robert Ramirez, this “Much Ado” is at its best when Beatrice and Benedick are trading barbs. Ramirez has a grand old time with the sight gags — Benedick flips out a pink towel and reclines on it, tossing his hair like he is Kenough and his job is beach. As they eavesdrop on their friends, Benedick uproots a plant to hide behind, while Beatrice gapes, mouth open, amid the cover of bedsheets on a laundry line.
Triney Sandoval serves up a whole buffet of word salad as the cartoonish constable Dogberry, scrabbling about the stage and pontificating like a politician. It’s a treat, and perfect casting, to see Madison theater vet Sam White onstage as his dopey second in command.
Lots of supporting cast members grab the opportunity to score a laugh. As one of Don John’s henchpeople, Elizabeth Ledo rolls her eyes so far and so frequently, I swear they’re gonna get stuck like that.
Daniele Tyler Mathews’s highly embellished costumes have a half dozen layers, with lace-up bodices and strappy, colorful shoes and skirts over skirts over skirts. The dresses evoke Gaston’s girls in “Beauty and the Beast,” while Holt, as Don Pedro, strides around in stylish maroon pants (Henry V, anyone?). Also there are shorts! Shakespearean shorts!
Dogberry’s watchmen look like a Brownie troupe raided some British officers’ cast-offs. As complemented by Josafath Reynoso’s washed-blue, peeling, seaside set design and dappled yet subtle lighting by Dawn Chiang, there’s just so much to see.
Ramirez’s contemporary-feeling “Much Ado” should have no trouble finding a hometown crowd, and it deserves one. This production is not only beautiful to look at, it moves like a dance — three hours fly. And the romance at its center is truly timeless.
