Much Ado – REVIEW
Image: Steve Corner and Hal Jones in Much Ado. Image: supplied
By Lucinda Garbutt-Young
For Shakespeare lovers and newcomers alike, Much Ado at Marrickville’s Flight Path Theatre is set to make you content with laughter. The show, which has been adapted by lead actor and executive producer, Hal Jones from Shakespeare’s script, features the quick wit of the original in a contemporary setting.
Walking into the small theatre, audiences are greeted with moody lighting, a checkerboard floor and a large bar. The walls are adorned in gold fringing. The show’s first scene is full of colourful suits and popped collars. It’s hauntingly ’80s in appearance, yet the play itself seems to transcend time.
Characters speak with the booming intonation so often associated with Shakespeare’s work, but tradition is broken at times for tactical swears, a quick word to the audience or a modern joke thrown in. It’s testament to director Maddie Withington’s approach to the production.
“If we had to look up a joke… we removed it,” Withington told CityHub in an earlier interview, noting that her good friend Jones considered what elements needed to stay in the story.
Despite a flat stage, the play makes striking use of props and actor’s bodies to create levels. Characters regularly hide under a table or hunch at the front of the stage to appear small. Benedick (Steve Corner) roles across the floor, edging nearer to his love interest Beatrice (Hal Jones) in an hilariously physical game of hard to get. Most interesting is the production’s use of repetition; Beatrice later does the same thing in return, yet the movements always feel fresh.
It’s this cyclical approach to play-making, both in the choice of script and what happens on stage, that makes Much Ado a mesmerising watch. You don’t know quite where you are, or how you should feel about what’s unfolding before you. All you know is that you’re having regular fits of laughter throughout the evening.
Much Ado is as much fun for the audience as for those on stage. It’s an easy watch, guaranteed to give you a laugh.
Until August 13
Flight Path Theatre, 142 Addison Rd, Marrickville,
www.flightpaththeatre.org/whats-on/much-ado
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