Metro Pulse/Backstage/Much Ado About Nothing

Comment
on this story

What:
Much Ado About Nothing

When:
July 11-Aug. 2

Where:
Black Box Theatre, Homberg Place

Cost:
$8-$12. Call 546-4280 for more info.

Shakespeare's never been funnier

by Paige M. Travis

You know it's summer in Knoxville when Shakespeare comes to call. But this summer, Much Ado About Nothing as presented by the Tennessee Stage Company's East Tennessee Shakespeare in the Park is the only Shakespeare play in the season. The Smoky Mountain Shakespeare Festival did the hilarious The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged, and the follow-up ETSP show will be George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man. But since we only get one play by the Bard himself, it's a good thing it's Much Ado, a fully realized work that is actually funny (and not just to the Elizabethans).

Having done Shakespeare traditionally in the past, TSG approaches this production with a concept and a challenge: to do a 15-character play with only five actors. No sets or props or costumes save a kind of waiter's outfit of white shirt and black pants, for men and women alike. Even the stage area is established merely by concentric black and white stripes like a boxing ring. Knowing that Shakespeare's plays tend to be complex, I felt a little nervous about remembering names and details, like who wants to marry whom and which are the sworn enemies. Luckily for me, the play begins with a primer. To set the concept in motion, the characters stand in a circle and identify themselves by chanting their names over and over again with telling physical movements and appropriate accents. It's a lot of information to absorb in two minutes, but the introduction is a clever and helpful way to put viewers on the right track.

Much Ado takes place in Sicily, mostly at the home of Leonato, governor of Messina. He is in the company of his daughter Hero and sharp-witted niece Beatrice. They wait to meet Benedick, who has just come back from the wars with a young champion named Claudio, who fancies Hero. Benedick and Beatrice have a long-standing relationship that is part fight, part flirtation. Their friends and family, probably because they're so sick of hearing their witty yet insulting banter, decide to trick them into falling in love. Another plot involves Don Juan, the "bastard" brother of Don Pedro, who doesn't want Hero and Claudio to marry and fabricates a ruse to make people think Hero has sullied her purity.

If you've ever read or seen a Shakespeare comedy before, you know from experience what's going to happen, so it's fun to go along for the ride. Despite the mildly confusing element of seeing the actors change into other characters in mid-scene, it's quite easy to understand what's going on and laugh at the dialogue. I've never heard an audience laugh so much at Shakespeare. And that's mainly thanks to Michael Golebieski.

As the confirmed bachelor Benedick and the super-vigilant watchman Dogberry, Golebieski is funny in a way Hollywood actors dream of being. With great material at his disposal, he uses every facial expression to demonstrate Benedick's deep distrust of women and the state of matrimony. He stammers when faced with the words "marriage" and "marry," a classic gag that is still new within the context of Shakespeare. And to separate Benedick from his other roles, he creates Dogberry as a barrel-chested fool with a deep, drawling voice. He's totally ridiculous, and even more so when paired with Susannah Devereux as Verges, an old man who is a night watch trainee. Her Verges is an earnest imbecile, goofy but not entirely cartoonish. The two create hilarious scenes as Dogberry tries to teach the old man the rules of nightwatching and as they apprehend two criminals who have helped Don Juan perpetrate the lie about Hero's virtue.

Devereux also plays the brightly clever Beatrice and the brooding Don Juan. Her delightfully original accent is crisp and educated as Beatrice and sort of Cockney-fied as Verges. Devereux, who has acted in film and television all over the world, is a charming and talented addition to the Shakespeare cast and the Knoxville theater scene.

The other actors have roles with less dramatic destiny than Benedick and Beatrice. Amy Loyd, who was so funny as Pompey in last year's Measure for Measure, plays the serious parts of Leonato and Hero. Her place as both father and daughter exhibits the artistry of the production's blocking. The choreography of actors moving in and out of the square or walking across the space as they "become" another character makes the gimmick work more smoothly.

Juan Salvati plays the jolly Don Pedro, who comes up with the idea to trick the foes into falling in love. Salvati's accent, gained by birth in Argentina, adds another level of variety to the voices on stage. His lines, however, are a little hard to understand at times. He also plays Ursula, a sort of maid to Hero, as a kind of hunchback with strange mannerisms. The effect was both amusing and disturbing, as if he were making fun of someone with physical handicaps. His Friar Francis is less startling.

Rob Wheeler plays the honorable Claudio, plus the criminal Borachio and Margaret, another one of Hero's strange servants. Wheeler plays Claudio as such a good guy, it's easy to see why Benedick brought him back from the war as a pal and why he just wants to settle down as a family man with the virtuous Hero.

Director Mark Creter, who has been performing and directing for ETSP for 10 years, may not have invented the concept of five actors for 15 characters, but he truly makes it work. The show is clever, funny and touching—everything Shakespeare intended.