#MyPlayToday ... Much Ado About Nothing
First impressions of the draw: *Mental image of Kenneth Branagh flouncing around in that fountain*
Had I read the play before? No
IIt's been an absolute joy to spend the day with one of my favourite comedies. It slightly baffles me that, to my memory, I had never read Much Ado. Partly because I've listened to Ben Crystal's wonderful Original Pronunciation CD so many times that I can recite a particular scene by heart, albeit in a very dodgy part-Irish-part-West-Country impression of OP. Partly because Much Ado is, I would venture, my most frequently watched comedy. As my initial reaction to the draw betrays, Kenneth Branagh's joyous adaptation is a rainy day (and cloudy day and sunny day... heck, any day) favourite of mine. I also recently saw the play under the guise of Love's Labour's Won at the RSC alongside Love's Labour's Lost (which I reviewed here), a marriage of productions made in heaven.
My appreciation of the play as a kind of generic muscle flex from Shakespeare is owed solely to Emma Smith's fantastic lecture on Much Ado, focusing on the wonderful question: 'Why does everyone believe Don John?' It's a real kick-yourself question when considering the play's plot development, particularly (in my opinion) in relation to Labour's. What Labour's lacks in its own narrative course are the generic stock-types of blocking figures; a role Don John embodies with Iago-esque motive opacity and which Leonato comes close to in his Lord Capulet-style rage against Hero. However, this didn't inhibit the Royal Shakespeare Company's pairing of these plays, which pivoted beautifully on the mirroring of Berowne/Rosaline and Benedick/Beatrice. Michelle Terry's and Edward Bennett's wonderful performances where very much alive in my head reading the play today.
As productions consistently reminded me today, the play is fizzling with moments of inspired comic timing (which, to reproduce out of context here, I would necessarily butcher), not least Benedick's bitter expostulation on Beatrice just as she enters the stage. Much Ado is largely counted among my favourite comedies because the fact that Beatrice and Benedick's incessant banter is just about the sexiest thing in Shakespeare is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me.
I have a little laugh in the hope that Shakespeare has intentionally made Hero and Claudio such plain characters to make Beatrice and Benedick ignite the page and the stage all the more vividly. Reading particularly the first three acts in one of my favourite cafes, I smiled to withstand a conveyor belt of couples on dates (some really rather sweet, some tangibly awkward) whilst engaged in the early courtship rituals of these acts. Beatrice and Benedick's organic, fiery banter of a 'date', like those couples in the cafe, is contrasted with Hero and Claudio's rigidly conventional courtship.
I hesitate to say that today's reading environment lead me to reflect on Beatrice and Benedick as a 'couple for today', because that wickedly stubborn wit which veils both pride and affection is not commonplace for relationships of any era. Rather, it's something like today's rom-com ideal. Cafe couples, maybe next time will be the one.
One entirely random thought/question the play inspired of me today: Having watched The Two Gentlemen of Verona the night before put a new spin on Claudio's lines 'Friendship is constant in all other things / Save in the office and affairs of love.' (2.1.184-5)
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