Much Ado About Nothing
By William Shakespeare
Inn on the Park, St Albans
July 2011
Much Ado firmly established pants in the repertoire in the famous shaving scene (it's there). And the ever present St Albans baby buggy proved useful to Benedict when eves-dropping unseen, while Beatrice utilised a handy trampoline to overhear her friends' conversation from behind the hedge. The reviewer's observation that the production “roared into life” was testament to the brilliant, gutsy acting from everyone involved. The setting in present day St Albans allowed the language to be as fresh as it was when Shakespeare wrote it — including the rather racy bits.
“Brilliant! Hilarious! Superbly performed!”
Audience member
“Energetic, captivating and above all funny... it roars into life”
Herts Advertiser
Cast
Beatrice - Philippa Tatham
Benedick - Trevor Murphy
Leonato - Oscar Blend
Don Pedro - Chris Paddon
Claudio - Simon Nader
Margaret - Lisa Castle
Hero - Gemma Barrett
Borachio - Paul Sayers
Don John - Simon Bolton
Dogberry/ Friar Francis - Simon Boughey
Director - Simon Bolton
Producer/ Assistant Director - Paul Sayers
Review
“Bringing the Bard to life in St Albans' Verulamium Park
Rooftop Theatre Company specialise in making Shakespeare accessible — and they have excelled with their current production of Much Ado About Nothing.
True, Much Ado is one of Shakespeare's more 21st-Century-friendly plays with its evergreen themes of bittersweet relationships and dastardly deeds but that should not in any way detract from what Rooftop is currently doing in the open-air production in Verulamium Park, St Albans.
Directors Simon Bolton, who also takes the part of the dastardly Don John, and Paul Sayers, who doubles as Borachio, have guided a production which is energetic, captivating and above all, funny.
Every year Rooftop puts on a high-calibre Shakespeare production outside the Inn on the Park but this is undoubtedly the best yet.
To have an eye for such comic moments as a masque where the main participants wear the faces of William and Kate or to have Benedick overhearing a conversation through a child's buggy is no small achievement on the imagination front.
To get them to work so effectively that the audience are totally drawn into the modern-dress production is nothing short of genius.
The story of the warring lovers Beatrice and Benedick is well known and in Philippa Tatham and Trevor Murphy — the man with the wildest hair in St Albans — it roars into life.
Despite Shakespeare's arcane language, these two demonstrate that hate and love are close bedfellows just as much today as they were when the play was first performed in the late 16th Century. They are passionate performers and spark brilliantly off each other.
Gemma Barrett's Hero is a perfect foil for Beatrice and her wedding scene where she wears a fascinator not far removed from one seen at a recent royal wedding is hilarious.
Oscar Blend, who has become a welcome addition to the St Albans drama scene, is an imposing Leonato, at his best in the scenes with Simon Nader's Claudio and Chris Paddon's Don Pedro.
Completing a first-rate cast are Lisa Castle as the bike-riding Margaret and Simon Boughey who takes two roles but is particularly entertaining as Dogberry the Constable.
Whether you know Much Ado well or only sketchily, Rooftop are mounting an excellent production in the park. Catch it while you can.”
Madeleine Burton, Herts Advertise