Much Ado about Nothing

by William Shakespeare

seen in the gardens of Braboeuf Manor, Guildford on 18 July 2026

The Guildford Shakespeare Company and the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond have created joint open-air productions of both Love's Labour's Lost and Much Ado About Nothing for their summer seasons (quite usual for the GSC, but particularly apt for the Orange Tree, the auditorium for which is undergoing major renovations this summer). Tom Littler from the Orange Tree directs a cast of ten in the two plays, and he has devised ways to link them so that they appear to deal with the same characters before and after the Second World War. This is achieved by a few textual adjustments, but principally by assigning character names from each play to four couples and some assorted others. Thus the plays are linked more explicitly than in a similar exercise presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company eleven years ago (the RSC placed the plays on either side of the First World War and disposed the members of the cast differently).

By chance I have seen the "second" play first, and have thus watched the soldiers returning from the war, variously affected by its violence: Benedick Berowne suffers nightmares, while the affable Longeuville has become the treacherous John. But the linkings are a minor matter; the principal pleasure is to be gained from the excellence of the production of a fine play. Beatrice (Phoebe Pryce) and Benedick (James Sheldon) remain the dazzling sparring couple perfectly believable in the heady days of victory in the mid-1940s, while the plot to denigrate Hero (Joëlle Brabant) and humiliate Claudio (Chirag Benedict Lobo) unfolds around them in a milieu where mistrust could very easily develop due to the years-long parting of sweethearts. The comic village constabulary with the pompous Dogberry (Matt Pinches, doubling also as the villainous John) in charge are suitably re-imagined as members of the local home guard in a nod to Dad's Army.

In a corner of the extensive gardens of the former Guildford College of Law the setting was imagined to be a rural village pub festooned with victory bunting but apparently not much used during the war years. Great trees provided a magnificent backdrop and a vital sounding board, and also much needed shade for the actors in a matinee performance (the audience was less fortunate in this respect). Once again the GSC has provided a really enjoyable al fresco production of a Shakespeare play.

45 Years

adapted by Hannah Patterson from Andrew Haigh's film

seen at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester on 4 July 2026

Prasanna Puwanarajah directs Gabriel Byrne as Geoff, Geraldine James as Kate and Gillian Bevan as Lena in Hannah Patterson's adaptation of the film 45 Years which was written and directed by Andrew Haigh and released in 2015 (Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling played the couple while Geraldine James played Lena).

Geoff and Kate are about to celebrate their forty-fifth wedding anniversary, their ruby wedding celebrations having been cancelled due to Geoff's ill-health at the time. Theirs seems to be a marriage of long contentment and companionship, but a letter sent to Geoff throws an unexpected light on his past. He had told Kate of the girlfriend he had had before they met, and that she had died in a climbing accident when they were holidaying in the Alps, but there were evidently things that he had not said, which Kate now finds very painful to consider.

Over the course of the few days between the arrival of the letter and the celebratory party Kate must deal with catering arrangements and the well-meaning chatter of her friend Lena, all the while trying to come to terms with her new awareness of her husband's past, and her lack of certainty about what he might or might not have inadvertently or deliberately told her. In the meantime Geoff too has been knocked off balance by the news in the letter, and he struggles with his natural reticence, and perhaps his failing memory, to realise the pain he has caused.

The play is set solely in various rooms in their house with only the most minimal indication of which room the couple are in (set designed by James Cotterill); there is a clever indication of when Kate is in the loft. Indications that the house may be a bit rundown with age and their long residence perhaps mirror the fragility of Kate's and Geoff's relationship - there are persistent leaks from the rain outside, and a troublesome ballcock which Geoff eventually repairs. Only right at the end are we in the hall where the long-planned party takes place.

Conversation is mostly measured and muted, and the pattern of very short scenes of dialogue punctured by blackouts, very reminiscent of fades or scene-cuttings in film, is at first rather disconcerting, but the overall effect is to emphasise how much goes unspoken in apparently innocuous dialogue, and how fatally difficult it becomes to articulate important things after a lifetime of not doing so. Outbursts of temper never lead to longwinded or tearful confessions. The cumulative effect of all this reticence is etched on Kate's face as she dances with Geoff in the village hall - it is utterly unclear what she will do next, while Geoff appears to think that he has made things right by publicly declaring his love for his wife.

Geraldine James and Gabriel Byrne handle this low-key approach with great skill, though there is a slight danger that at times they speak too quietly. One soon realises how verbose many dramas are on stage and screen in comparison to this stripped back but still very revealing dialogue, which, in this stage version, is perfectly matched by the austere visual style.

Black Comedy

by Peter Shaffer

seen at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond on 2 July 2026

Caroline Steinbeis directs Joe Bannister as Brindsley Miller, Leah Haile as his fiancée Carol Melkett, Jason Barnett as her father Colonel Melkett, Julia Hills as Brindsley's neighbour Miss Furnival, Simon Manyonda as his other neighbour Harold Gorringe, Patricia Allison as his former girlfriend Clea, Chris Chilton as Schuppanzigh (an employee of the London Electricity Board) and Javier Marzan as Georg Bamberger, a wealthy recluse, in Peter Shaffer's one-act farce Black Comedy.

The action takes place on an evening of chaos (naturally): Brindsley and Carol prepare to dazzle her father and Baumgartner who are about to visit Brindsley's down-at-heel flat. To do this they have surreptitiously "borrowed" impressive items - furniture and knickknacks - from Gorringe's flat in his absence. Suddenly the entire building suffers a blackout during which unexpected visitors turn up and complicate the situation in the ridiculous way in which farces usually operate.

The dazzling visual technique by which all this is managed for the audience's benefit is that the opening scene in which there is electric light is played in total darkness, while the scenes in blackout are played with full stage lighting so we can see all the characters blindly feeling their way about the room. Striking a match or clicking on a cigarette lighter reduces the lighting to a subdued glow. This witty convention allows for any number of tremendous sight gags as characters try to find one another, hand out drinks, or in Brindsley's case try to move furniture into and out of the room. The arrival of a new character can be "concealed" until he or she chooses to speak, providing yet another avenue for laughs.

The physical comedy is rendered even more remarkable as the play is here performed in the round, so the gags have to be convincing from multiple angles; the small acting space means that drinks are occasionally passed in error to members the audience, and some are directly addressed by characters who mis-place where other people are in the room.

The cast and creative team (set and costume designer.Simon Daw, lighting designer Elliott Griggs and physical comedy consultant John Nicholson among others) have done the play proud, and have revealed the astonishing variety of Peter Shaffer's talent - he wrote this play within months of the epic The Royal Hunt of the Sun. Yet though this seems far removed from the high seriousness of his full-length dramas there remains beneath the surface a strong undercurrent of uncertainty and betrayal; Brindsley is tying himself in knots and unwittingly causing damage to himself as well as those around him as he persists in seeing himself only as a victim of circumstances. However, the strongest impression is of immense theatrical fun.