We round up the reviews for Chelsea Walker’s production of the comedy, playing at the theatre until the 24th October.
WhatsOnStage: “At its heart is an engaging performance from Ken Nwosu as Benedick, whose suppressed love for Pippa Nixon’s Beatrice is the motor of the central plot. “
The Stage: “Breezy, accessible and unabashedly silly summer romance.”
The Guardian: “The production, under Chelsea Walker’s direction, is a riot of fine staging, big on comedy, beautiful in sound and optics, adept at shifting the atmosphere, often with the help of the excellent live band (drum-like disturbances and nervy violin).”
Everything Theatre: “Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare’s more complex creations. Comedy, romance, cruelty and redemption are carefully balanced throughout. Yet the ultimate measure of the evening lay not on the stage but beside me. My companion arrived fearful that Shakespeare would be beyond him and left utterly charmed by the world he had just been welcomed into.”
London Unattached: “Chelsea Walker’s Much Ado About Nothing succeeds because it trusts Shakespeare’s text while illuminating its enduring relevance, producing a comedy that feels both timeless and thoroughly contemporary.”
The Arts Desk: “King Charles I famously declared that Much Ado About Nothing should be renamed the “Beatrice and Benedick play”. So it’s not difficult to imagine him – or indeed any fan of romantic screwball comedy – relishing Chelsea Walker’s elegant, sorbet-hued production in which Pippa Nixon’s flinty Beatrice and Ken Nwosu’s jocular, easy-going Benedick strike sparks from the off. “
All That Dazzles: “This is a sublime production of Much Ado About Nothing that captures the hearts and minds of its audience. The comedy is directed and delivered skillfully, and the darker moments are touched with thought and detail.”
Broadway World: “Walker is at her strongest at the play’s emotional zeniths, especially in the second act. Some of the scenes following Hero’s humiliation and ‘death’ are staged sparsely and without fanfare, leading to affecting performances of grief from Jonathan McGuinness as Leonato and Geraldine Alexander as a female version of the Friar. Walker also does not shy away from the sexualised violence Hero (Assa Kanouté) experiences at the hands of Claudio and Don John, including an unexpectedly shocking moment of rage involving wedding cake.”
London Theatre.co.uk: “It’s in the spirit of the place that Don John’s malfeasance gets vociferously booed but no matter. All is put right in time for the sort of collectively joyful curtain call that defines the Globe at its very best, of which this Much Ado – opening just in time for the summer solstice – is a shining example.”
A Young(ish) Perspective: “What impressed me most, however, was the way the production handled the play’s darker moments. Much Ado About Nothing may be a comedy, but it contains some of Shakespeare’s most emotionally devastating scenes. The most powerful arrives when Beatrice demands that Benedick kill Claudio. The audience gasped; a genuine collective shock. For a few seconds it felt as though nobody knew what was coming next. Despite the fact that many audience members undoubtedly knew the play well, we were completely immersed in the world Walker and her cast had created.”
Much Ado About Nothing continues to play at the Shakespeare’s Globe until the 24th October. To book tickets click here.