The highlights are in the performances, especially Ralph Davis as Benedick and Lucy Phelps as Beatrice. Tt’s a silly story with a lot to say, [but] despite the best efforts of her leads, Bailey’s production can’t settle on anything to say about it.
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Defined by its attention to detail, it balances directorial innovation with actorly inspiration. Some of the ‘business’ drags ... though the organised chaos of the incompetent night watchmen in the second half is a joy.
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Bailey’s joyful production of Shakespeare’s play glows with the warmth of the Italian sun. This is a smart, stylish, grown-up staging, and the most purely pleasurable evening I’ve had at the Globe in yonks.
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The second act’s sickly lurch into tragedy comes as a shock ... the darkness doesn't quite land. It's a memorable start to the summer season, full of music and mayhem in equal measure.
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Lucy Bailey’s production is a thoroughly elegant one. A gender-reversed Leonata (Katy Stephens) gives an especially strong performance, alongside Davis and Phelps, whose verbal swordplay sparkles with intelligence and mischief.
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In a production by Lucy Bailey that elegantly feminises some of the power structures, Katy Stephens is a standout. The sense of fun, finally, is all the more infectious for having been tested ... [in a] production that embraces this sweet and sour play’s contradictions with a forgiving smile on its face.
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The overall breezy tone means that the sudden shifts into darkness feels more marked. But this darkness is quickly banished ... in a production intent on spreading good cheer and warm feeling, a little sunshine after a hard winter.
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This is a comedy and a hugely satisfying one at that. The darker interpretation here of some aspects of the text serves to throw the funny stuff into such relief that it soars. This Much Ado About Nothing is as sparkling and heady as an extra dry prosecco: it's a real treat.
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