Tag Archives: Peter Forbes

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

★★★½

Royal Shakespeare Theatre

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Royal Shakespeare Theatre

★★★½

“a refreshingly funny and modern production”

Much Ado About Nothing is generally considered one of Shakespeare’s best comedies, because it combines elements of robust hilarity with more serious meditations on honour, shame and court politics. In this fun production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre under the skilful direction of Michael Longhurst (former Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse and his RSC directing debut) we see the scandal and glamour of international football as a backdrop to this popular rom-com play, exploring the culture of lads, wags and misogyny.

Messina FC has just won the European Cup for the first time and as we enter the auditorium, Jon Bausor’s cleverly designed thrust stage and 3D football stadium immediately immerses us into the world of social media, sponsorship and branding. Team manager Don Pedro (Olivier Huband), along with his captain, Benedick (yes one of a few amusing changes to the original) and their new star player Claudio (Daniel Adeosun making his RSC debut) are invited to take some well-deserved R&R at a villa belonging to Leonato, (an excellent Peter Forbes) owner of their team and his wife Antonia (a feisty Tanya Franks).

Claudio immediately falls in love with their daughter Hero, and everything is set for the wedding of the year. Beatrice – a sports broadcaster – and Benedick both claim to despise the whole notion of love and marriage, but the others plot to make them fall in love. However, Don John, the manager’s brother has a more malicious plot in mind. He tricks Claudio into believing he saw Hero in a compromising situation on the night before their wedding…

For many, the football stadium is still seen as a male space, so misogyny is set up right from the start. The clever use of interactive social media and the ‘deep fake’ pictures of Hero (Eleanor Worthington-Cox, who has a cracking singing voice) would provoke a modern and relatable sense of anger at her betrayal. This was a fascinating and exciting idea and I was eager to see how it would pan out, but even though there were some clever adjustments to the text and some very funny scenes – especially Leonato’s video call – I felt slightly disappointed at the end of the first act. It felt like the dramatic content had been compromised by its own concept. It was hard to believe that Hero was really that innocent, which meant her cancel culture didn’t have as much emotional weight, especially as she and Claudio seemed to provide the main impetus for the plot out of the two romantic couples, whilst Benedick and Beatrice were the foil and dramatic sub plot. However, the play gathered momentum when Benedick (an exceptional Nick Blood) thoroughly amused us with his slapstick humour, whilst maintaining an endearing vulnerability as he was being tricked by his team mates into falling in love with Beatrice (Freema Agyeman).

It seemed like a play of two halves with the second act being far more relatable, zipping along in its contemporary setting like a well oiled machine. Beatrice’s emotional declaration of love for Benedick was quite heart stopping, before she countered the mood with her witty delivery. One of the highlights of this enjoyable production was the hilarious head of security Dogberry (Antonio Margo) whose comic timing and malapropisms were a masterclass in comedy.

This is a refreshingly funny and modern production of Much Ado About Nothing and worthy of being in the premier league.



MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Royal Shakespeare Theatre

Reviewed on 22nd April 2025

by Sarah Milton

Photography by Marc Brenner

 

 


 

 

 

More ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ reviews:

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING | ★★★★ | THE RED LION | September 2024
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING | ★★★★ | WATERMILL THEATRE NEWBURY | April 2024
SH!T-FACED SHAKESPEARE®: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING | ★★★★★ | LEICESTER SQUARE THEATRE | July 2023
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING | ★★★★ | DUKE OF YORK’S THEATRE | February 2023
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING | ★★★ | JACK STUDIO THEATRE | August 2022

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Peter Forbes as Marley and Keith Allen as Scrooge in Mark Gatiss’ A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story

★★★★

Alexandra Palace Theatre

A CHRISTMAS CAROL: A GHOST STORY at Alexandra Palace Theatre

★★★★

Peter Forbes as Marley and Keith Allen as Scrooge in Mark Gatiss’ A Christmas Carol

“The icing on the (Christmas) cake is Paul Wills’ set”

You might think that an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” by Mark Gatiss, whose credits include ‘The League of Gentlemen’, ‘Little Britain’, ‘Inside No. 9’, ‘Sherlock’ and ‘Doctor Who’, would have an off-the-wall, surreal quality to it. To an extent you would be right, but overall Gatiss remains remarkably faithful to the original. Of course, there are surprises, twists and quirky humour, but also a profound respect for Dickens’ storytelling, and a forceful reminder that Dickens himself subtitled his novella ‘Being a Ghost Story of Christmas’.

Fittingly it opened just in time for Halloween at the Nottingham Playhouse, before sleighing into town for the run up to Christmas. Alexandra Palace, with its flaking façade and decaying Victorian grandeur, is the perfect setting. A touch too cavernous perhaps, which weakens the intimacy, but director Adam Penford’s production is aiming high for the cinematic scope of the supernatural. And in that he certainly delivers. Ella Wahlström’s surround sound could have come straight from the Dolby Laboratories, while Philip Gladwell’s lighting creates a vast spectrum of moods. The icing on the (Christmas) cake is Paul Wills’ set: an alternative, ramshackle, Victorian nightmare crowded with towering filing cabinets and desks, slickly rotating to reveal the cobbled streets, the graveyards, or the coal-fired warmth of family parlous.

The tale opens with a kind of prologue. Whereas Dickens’ famous opening lines describes Marley as being ‘dead as a doornail’, here we meet Marley very much alive. Albeit very briefly, before snuffing it, and then we flash forward seven years into more familiar territory. Keith Allen’s Scrooge is a bit of a bruiser, with a gentleman’s whiskers, unkempt enough to betray his miserly attitudes to all and sundry – including himself. Allen has an eye for detail, and we see in his facial expressions a boyish vulnerability beneath the thuggishness. His redemption is triggered more by fear than a deep-rooted desire to do right. Indeed, Marley’s ghost is a powerful figure in Peter Forbe’s hands; a booming personality that needs the thick mass of chains to restrain him. The three spirits of past present and future are not so spine-chilling, yet all bewitching in their own distinctive way. Particularly Joe Shire as the Ghost of Christmas Present – a throned, genie-like wizard with enough charisma to shake the loose change from the hardiest skinflint’s pockets.

“Whisps of ghosts fly above our heads as spectral carriages soar past the bell tower”

The human factor is a touch lacking, however, and our hearts are not always tugged sufficiently. It is the atmosphere that drives the piece rather than true emotion. Some chinks let sentiment flicker through, such as Tiny Tim’s deathbed scene. When Scrooge asks if these visions are the ‘shadows of things that will be, or the shadows of things that may be’, we do feel a quiver of feeling, but otherwise the true spirit is largely hidden behind the spectacle.

And a spectacle it is. Whisps of ghosts fly above our heads as spectral carriages soar past the bell tower. John Bulleid’s illusions, with Nina Dunn’s video design and Georgina Lamb’s choreography create a magical world that fills the vast, sepulchral space. For much of the time, though, we feel closer to Halloween than to Christmas, until the closing moments when the cast assemble into a Christmas Card tableau. A rousing ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ with gorgeous harmonies precedes a return to the narrator. Throughout, Geoffrey Beevers weaves a narrative thread that allows much of Dickens’ poetic language and humour to shine; into which Gatiss has thrown in a nice twist for good measure.

In the 1843 publication, Charles Dickens wrote in his preface that he has “endeavoured in this Ghostly little book to raise the Ghost of an idea”. Nearly two centuries later this ghost of an idea has grown into a seasonal favourite. Gatiss has added a few ghosts of his own that can only reinforce the longevity of such a classic. A haunting tale indeed, but still traditional enough to immerse us in the Christmas spirit.


A CHRISTMAS CAROL: A GHOST STORY at Alexandra Palace Theatre

Reviewed on 29th November 2023

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Manuel Harlan

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Treason The Musical | ★★★ | November 2023
Bugsy Malone | ★★★★★ | December 2022

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

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