Not Much Ado about last minute venue change

The cast of Much Ado About Nothing had their work cut out for them on Monday evening as bad weather forced them to perform their outdoor rehearsed production on a smaller indoor stage.

After months of glorious sunshine allowed the rehearsals to take place at Victoria Park’s bandstand, the stage was abandoned for Daylesford Theatre just one night into the run.

The cast pulled it off brilliantly, adapting their projection and finding places to huddle together during the scenes with numerous characters while off-stage the lighting was efficiently executed.

While a few involved in the Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society’s production told me it had put them out of their comfort level to move to a new location at such short notice, it never showed during the performance.

It may only have been her second ever Shakespeare performance but Jenny Burrell was phenomenal as the headstrong Beatrice. She was bursting with natural personality and effortlessly pulled off the biting wit of the verbose and head strong character.

Just one negligible slip up in the non-stop streams of complex prose spoke volumes about the versatility of this actress.

Robbie Godfrey, who is pursuing a professional acting career, was clearly au fait with the language having acted in numerous Shakespeare productions. His gave a more theatrical and perhaps extravagant depiction of Beatrice’s intellectual equal Benedick.

Son of BMDS veteran actress and director Carol Birch, James, made a return to the Bermuda stage following several years living overseas. I wonder if his mother might have taught him well as he had an extremely natural presence on the stage and his character as Don Pedro was likeable and believable.

There was, in my opinion, a certain degree of overacting by some of the actors like during the scene of secret plot to fool Benedick and Beatrice into loving eachother.

Subtle acknowledgement of the lovers’ presence rather than over-the-top nudges and winks would have sufficed and retained comedic value.

Director John Zuill decided to set the play in the 1940s which, while bringing to the stage a barrage of floral dresses, also allowed for some beautiful songs throughout. Emma Muggleton sang two a capella songs, the second of which set the hairs on the back of your neck on end.

It was a beautiful, emotional song after the tragic downfall of young Hero.