Sunday, September 12, 1999
THEATRE REVIEW
This 'Nothing' has everything
BY JACKIE DEMALINE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Step into the Marx Theatre these nights (and matinees) and find yourself wondering if you've wandered into some idyllic, long-hidden corner of Eden Park. A stone terrace is dominated by a decorative pond (complete with lily pads) and a dreamy foot bridge, all surrounded by a riot of trees in bloom. (Bravo to set designer Joseph Tilford.)
You've walked into Ed Stern's take on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, which takes the romantic comedy to small-town America just after our boys come marching home from The Great War. (It wasn't World War I until World War II.)
It's a wonderful Much Ado, with the spirit of a terrific silent screen comedy. It's filled with big schtick and big heart. If Harold Lloyd or Charlie Chaplin had been inclined to adapt Shakespeare, this is probably how they would have done it, with huge, almost-too-much sight gags and a real understanding of the best and worst of us.
The doughboys are led by Don Pedro (Christopher McHale) and arrive at the home of Leonato (Joneal Joplin.) He is father to fair Hero (Allison Krizner) and uncle to Beatrice (Christa Scott-Reed) who is wearing trousers(!) the first time we see her. It makes you suspect she's one of those suffragettes in her spare time. Once she starts talking, you're convinced she is.
Don Pedro's right-hand man Claudio (Steven Michael Harper) is in love with Hero. Benedick (Don Burroughs) is most certainly not in love with Beatrice, but for all their protests, they spend a lot of time trying to catch the other's attention.
Benedick makes the enormous miscalculation of announcing loudly that he'll never be hit by Cupid's arrow which, of course, persuades his buddies into tricking him into letting down his guard by having him overhear that Beatrice dotes on him. (Note: The “Nothing” in the title actually refers to “eavesdropping,” The Elizabethans didn't necessarily use our spellings or definitions.)
Happily they play the same trick on her, and we are rewarded with a great romantic duo. Ms. Scott-Reed is as merry as Shakespeare ever could have wished and fierce as a tigress in her loyalty. Mr. Burroughs is perfect as a scruffy, reluctant hero who turns out to be a prince of a fellow. In addition to being a fine actor, he can hold his breath under water for a long time.
The unhappier plot line concerns Hero and Claudio, who turns out not to be as honorable on the home front as he is in battle. Wicked Don John (John Rensenhouse), whom everyone knows to be a villain, has only to suggest that Hero is unchaste for Claudio to be taken in by his tricks.
It's one more case of a dark underside to Shakespeare's romantic comedy. Like Two Gentlemen of Verona last spring at Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, you wonder what the heroine has ever done to deserve such a man for the rest of her life.
One of the many delights of this Much Ado is the way Mr. Stern finds interesting subtexts for characters that resonate through the action. Don John, for instance, comes back from war without a hand and with shell-shock. It better fits our late 20th-century sensibilities than his being fixated on his illegitimacy.
The bumpkin element to this pastoral is led by Robert Elliott who wraps his tongue around constable Dogberry's malapropisms with a jolly gleam in his eyes. He enjoys a suitably rag-tag band of “deputies.”
Applause, too, to costume designer Elizabeth Hope Clancy, I wish I had space to go into detail.
The footbridge made me long for someone to start singing 'Til There Was You, which, come to think of it, is pretty appropriate in this case, too.
Much Ado About Nothing, through Oct. 8, Playhouse in the Park. 421-3888.
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