Review: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, The reFASHIONed Theatre, Selfridges, 26 August 2016

It's bicker, bicker, bicker with Benedick and Beatrice, but we haven't watched all those romcoms for nothing - we know they'll be together before the end (and, we suspect, so do they). Things are less straightforward for Claudio and Hero - sure, they confess their love at first sight (as is the way in Shakespeare), but there are dark forces working against them and their course of true love has plenty of bumps along the way.

the faction have taken over a black box theatre space downstairs at Selfridges for a range of events including this production of Shakey's comedy of lovers. With 122 seats and a traverse stage, we're never far from the action and you can see, as I like very much to see, the whites of the actors' eyes. It feels a little strange to walk past the perfumery and the displays of integrated luggage options to the auditorium door, but, once inside, the magic of theatre soon asserts its power.

Well, not quite immediately, as there's an awkward opening television sequence with Meera Syal reporting on the fighting in Messina with the pictures slightly out of synch with words and the actors a little nervous about timing their lines with the recording. Simon Callow and Rufus Hound turn up on screen later, but the technical problems remain. They're hardly disastrous, but they are intrusive - always a risk when tricksy stuff is tried out in live theatre.

Once we can focus solely on the actors in front of us, things improve with a stripped-back cast delivering the play at breakneck speed, all-through in 90 breathless minutes. Daniel Boyd gives a Benedick full of decency and a certain camp over-the-topness, swiftly shedding his dedication to bachelorhood when Beatrice (Alison O'Donnell - Scottish, smart and sassy) is manipulated into acknowledging her true feelings.

Harry Lister Smith and Lowri Izzard are sweetly innocent in love as Claudio and Hero, making the brooding Christopher Hughes with sidekick Jamie Maclachlan's evil dissembling all the more wicked. A coquettish Tala Gouveia rather gets away with her part in the set-up as Hero's maid Margaret (and is full of guilty looks, like one of those misbehaving dogs in a YouTube clip), and the whole thing is anchored by very solid performances from Caroline Langrishe as Leonata and Jude Owusu as alpha male Don Pedro.

On a traverse stage with a lot of hard plastic and metal either side, the acoustics are not ideal, so it's even more important for the actors to give Shakespeare's words the crystal-clear diction they need - mostly they do, but one or two of the cast would benefit from slowing down a little and ensuring that every last syllable is audible.

Despite those quibbles, you can't help but hit Oxford Street with a spring in your step, happy that the four young people who so obviously should be together, do indeed end up together, despite the difficulties presented to them. A case of all's well that ends well, I suppose.

Much Ado About Nothing continues at The reFASHIONed Theatre until 24 September.

Picture credit: Simon Annand

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