Much Ado About Nothing: Laughing for days

 Much Ado About Nothing: Catherine Tate and David Tennant

What is so appealing and entertaining about the romance between Beatrice and Benedick at the heart of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing? It’s clear there’s a fine line between loving and hating when our lovers are so keen to hide their respective interest in each other with unbridled disdain, turning their words into walls to deflect their own feelings. But really, here are two people who couldn’t be more well-matched if they tried (and they certainly try). They match each other in wit, word for word, bite for bite. No one is clever enough for Beatrice but Benedick and no one is as unafraid of Beatrice as Benedick. A match made in heaven? 

Another aspect of the play that might appeal to us is the element of genre. Being a Shakespearean comedy we can approach the play feeling comfortably confident that we’ll get a happy ending. We enjoy the next two hours of verbal sparring between Beatrice and Benedick so much because we’re all in on a secret which the two lovers are entirely oblivious to: they get their happy ending. 

The particular production of Much Ado in my mind’s eye is the 2011 production, starring Catherine Tate and David Tennant. Their performances are both raucously funny and highly sensitive, befitting the emotional rollercoaster that the story takes us through. 

What’s particularly interesting about the Tate-Tennant partnership in this play to me is its fame outside of Much Ado. Most people will know that Tate and Tennant have worked together in the past (namely on Doctor Who) and many fans were drawn to this production of Much Ado because of that very partnership. That’s not an uncommon thing to happen at all - most of us do that for actors whose work we enjoy - but the point is that when you think about it, it’s almost like we’re not watching the characters anymore, we’re watching those actors playing those characters. There’s some strange metatheatre stuff going on. All that set aside though, it’s a testament to the Tate-Tennant partnership that their Much Ado was so widely acclaimed and entertaining (even if you’re not all that familiar with their Doctor Who work). 

In large part, I’d argue their longstanding working relationship actually makes the play more accessible to audiences. If you’re familiar with Donna and the Doctor, you know exactly what you’re getting into when the curtain goes up for Much Ado. If you’re unfamiliar, the very fact that Tate and Tennant have worked together in the past and are good friends in their own lives makes the Beatrice-Benedick relationship come naturally to the stage because of the trust and friendship the actors themselves share. It’s a small detail, but this is particularly important when we realise that it appears in the story that Beatrice and Benedick have some history. 

And then there’s the physical comedy! It’s no secret that Shakespeare’s wit in writing can be easily missed, but being a play it’s always easier to watch Shakespeare’s comedies than to read them. Just because some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays are tragedies doesn’t mean his plays aren’t also hilarious, and cleverly so. The banter between Beatrice and Benedick is a prime example of that: not only can Shakespeare write poetically, he writes comedy poetically too. And then pair that writing with Tate and Tennant’s physical presence on stage, their interactions, costumes and some dodgy make-up and you get some real theatre magic. 

Comedy, especially for plays as old as Shakespeare’s, reminds us of how, as audiences, it seems our pleasures remain simple: make us laugh! That joy is something audiences of this 2011 production can share with strangers four hundred years older than us, in an entirely different world, drinking in the same words, the same characters, and the same laughter.