Much Ado About Nothing
(Picture: Manuel Harlan)With sparkling chemistry between Lucy Phelps and Ralph Davis as sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick, Lucy Bailey’s joyful production of Shakespeare’s play glows with the warmth of the Italian sun. Typical of London’s spring weather to let it down.
As the audience shivered under the open sky on opening night, the ensemble - one of the more harmonious the Globe has fielded recently - drank, danced, flirted and fought in elegant 1940s attire on Joanna Parker’s verdant set, to the strains of an all-female accordion quintet. Bailey balances absurdly funny, exaggerated physical comedy with a fine, finessing attention to the text. The result is delightful.
