Much Ado About Nothing at
Albany Civic Theatre, directed by
Johanna Spencer, is a production that desperately wants to be a farce, but the
play keeps getting in the way.
Much Ado is one of
Shakespeare’s most frequently produced comedies, and with good reason: the wit of
Benedict and Beatrice, the sighs of Claudio and Hiro, the buffoonery of
Dogberry and the Watch. The language is mostly in prose, and there is plenty of
opportunity for physical comedy. In short, it is a crowd-pleasing play that is
relatively easy to produce. I have seen productions from bad to excellent, but
for my money, nothing is superior to the 1993 film starring Kenneth Branagh and
Emma Thompson.
Albany Civic Theatre
(for those who have never been) is an easy thirty minute drive south of Salem. The
company was founded in 1950, four years before Pentacle and twenty-five years
before Brush Creek. The theatre itself is converted from an old cinema
(formerly the Rialto). As such, the house is long and narrow, and the stage is
a narrow proscenium. Sightlines are decent, although as the house fills, spectators
move rapidly away from the stage.
Albany’s Much Ado makes
some interesting choices. It opens with Beatrice winning a real fencing match—a
nice foreshadow to the verbal sparring that is to follow. Several roles are
casually gender-switched, notably the patriarch Leonato (now Leonata), a
refreshing update on Shakespeare’s boys’ club. The production is set in the American
1920s, so much fun is had with flapper skirts, the Charleston, and Teddy
Roosevelt hats. Original musical arrangements for “Hey Nonny Nonny” and the
funeral dirge are a pleasant addition.
Unfortunately, the acting never rises to the passion of the
play itself. Benedict, played by newcomer Rory McDaniel, is cartoonish and
self-indulgent. Not every line of Shakespearean imagery needs to be pantomimed,
nor does every innuendo deserve a pelvic thrust. He brings ample energy, but he
comes across as a horny adolescent. Beatrice, on the other hand, played by
Catherine Polan Orzech, is bright, powerful, and self-assured, and if she takes
some of her beats from Emma Thompson, it does not hurt her performance. Except that the styles are in such a
contrast, it is as if the pair are acting in different plays.
For the rest of the cast, they are at sea whenever the play
takes a real emotional turn. The wedding scene is bloodless, as if the stakes
are too low for anyone but Claudio to get excited about. The audience was
likewise subdued. It was actually Benedict’s slapstick that the audience
enjoyed the most, along with Dogberry and Verges’, and the endless excursions
of the Keystone Cops (playing the Watch). The production wants to live here, in the land of farce, but Shakespeare keeps
pulling them out of it by demanding an emotional sincerity that is never
attained. At three hours long, it was far too tedious for this neighbor. Much Ado runs through April 4.
Elsewhere in the
Valley
·
Theatre
Talk, Friday, April 3 at 8:30 am on KMUZ Radio.
·
S.K.I.T.
Theatre Showcase, Tuesday, April 7, at Bethany Baptist Church.
·
A Bench in the Sun, at Brush Creek
Playhouse. Opens Friday, April 10.
·
Auditions:
For Accidentally Yours, at Brush
Creek, April 11.
·
Auditions:
For Chicago, at Pentacle, April 11.
