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.

Love's Labour's Won - or - Much Ado About Nothing

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 5 March 2015

This production, provocatively retitled 'Love's Labour's Won' to underscore its relation t 'Love's Labour's Lost', is directed by Christpoher Luscombe with Edward Bennett as Benedick and Michelle Terry as Beatrice. It is set just after the First World War ostensibly in Charlecote Park, again to draw parallels to the earlier play.

The same production team is responsible for both plays; at the opening of this one there are hospital beds and nurses, but this soon gives way to the lighter-hearted mood of relief that ushered in the Twenties. Once again Nigel Hess's music evokes the era, with a concluding ragtime-like dance number.

Love's Labour's Lost

by William Shakespeare

seen by live streaming from the RSC on 11 February 2015

This production directed by Christopher Luscombe features Edward Bennett as Berowne and Michelle Terry as Rosaline. It is set in the summer of 1914 ostensibly at Charlecote, the Elizabethan manor house near Stratford on Avon (in whose park the boy William is reputed by some to have poached deer).

Details of the manor house have been used and adapted to provide a library and a drawing room as interiors, and a gatehouse and roofscape, as well as indication of the park, as exteriors. The stage design, by Simon Higlett, is inventive and bewitching. Music by Nigel Hess evokes the style of Elgar and the often melancholy tone of folksong to brilliant effect.