Much Ado About Nothing

Reviewed by Katie Buenneke
A Noise Within
Through March 12

I must start this review by confessing that this production of Much Ado About Nothing is a victim of my own expectations. Much Ado is my favorite Shakespearean text, and I’ve always respected the craft A Noise Within puts into their productions of the classics. I expected to love this show — but sadly, I was disappointed.

Directed by Guillermo Cienfuegos, Shakespeare’s comedy centers on Beatrice (Erika Soto) and Benedick (Joshua Bitton) who despise each other. Benedick has just returned from war (World War II) with mentor figure Don Pedro (Frederick Stuart), the ingenu/inamorato Claudio (Stanley Andrew Jackson), and Don Pedro’s bastard brother, John (Rafael Goldstein). Upon arriving in Messina, Claudio immediately falls in love with Hero (Alexandra Hellquist), Beatrice’s cousin and the daughter of Leonato (Tony Pasqualini), who invites the whole group to stay for a month. Claudio and Hero plan to marry, and Don Pedro plots to make Beatrice and Benedick fall in love with each other. But John, bored and looking to live up to his reputation as a bastard, decides to throw a wrench in the works through a dastardly plot involving his friend Borachio (Michael Uribes) and one of Hero’s maids, Margaret (Jeanne Syquia).

To me, a successful performance of this play hinges on the chemistry between Beatrice and Benedick; their bickering is a form of self-defense. Beatrice indicates that they had once been in a relationship, but it ended poorly. They duel, sparks flying, lashing out to cover their wounded hearts, and there’s delicious dramatic irony because the audience knows that their barbs are just a façade, and they’ll end up happily together by the end of the play.

But the aforementioned sparks are absent here. Bitton does play Benedick’s insecurity well, but his interpretation goes so far as to present Benedick as more of a commoner. This is at odds with other interpretations I’ve seen, where the character is played as more of a louche patrician, which explains his idle lifestyle and lack of need to marry.

The primary challenge in playing Beatrice is showing that her sharp words are armor around a soft heart. The pivotal moment, to me, is when Don Pedro proposes marriage. Beatrice turns him down, but in a manner which still endears her to him, prompting him to remark on her “pleasant” nature, and immediately decide to make her and Benedick fall in love. But here, when Don Pedro proposes, Soto looks out to the audience, pulling a face, as if to tell us Pedro is an egregious option. She does not let him down easily, so much that she abruptly changes the subject.

Cienfuegos makes an abrupt directorial choice in the second half, showing us how a handful of double-cast actors transform from one role to the other, but it’s unclear what purpose this serves. His blocking also has the actors sitting or lying on the floor often, which draws attention to the spots where the painted tiles have been worn through, making the setting seem grubbier than was perhaps intended. To me, the second half is also tricky, as it moves from a fun comedy full of banter to a morality play, and this staging did not steer the text away from its tendency to descend into melodrama after Claudio and Hero’s wedding.

Still, when the show works, it’s quite fun, especially in the moments of pure physical comedy, like when Don Pedro, Leonato and Claudio stage a conversation about Beatrice’s affection so that Benedick, hiding in a car repair shop, will overhear. The constable Dogberry, to me, has always felt like a character whose malapropisms must have been much funnier in the 1600s than they are now, but Wesley Mann‘s affected performance with a larger-than-life accent is full of bold, amusing choices.

With a text as well-written as Much Ado About Nothing is, it’s hard to go wrong. And A Noise Within’s staging isn’t bad, but it’s not as good as I had hoped it would be.

A Noise Within, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena; Thurs–Sat., 8 pm; Sat.–Sun., 2 pm; through Mar. 12. (626) 356-3100 or anoisewithin.org. Running time: two hours and 40 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.