American Stage's Much Ado About Nothing takes Shakespeare, and the merry war, out to the park.
By JOHN FLEMING
Published April 19, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - In American Stage's Much Ado About Nothing, which opened over the weekend on the downtown waterfront, much depends on how one interprets the play's title.
Todd Olson, making his debut as a director of Shakespeare under the stars in the company's 19th annual park show, writes in a program note that his reading of the play was influenced by the pronunciation in Elizabethan times of "nothing" as "noting," suggesting eavesdropping. It's a theme that dominates the lively staging, with its emphasis on scheming, misheard conversation and mistaken identity.
There's another, more sublime way to look at the title's meaning. The literary critic Harold Bloom says that "much ado about nothing" was Shakespeare's pithy definition of love. Certainly, the play covers the gamut in its two relationships: the witty, quarrelsome skepticism of Beatrice and Benedick; and the love-at-first-sight romance of Hero and Claudio.
Olson also saw a connection between Much Ado About Nothing and the paintings of Salvador Dali, perhaps because the soldiers who take their leave in Messina, Italy, are led by Don Pedro, prince of Aragon, a kingdom in what is now Spain. The nearby Salvador Dali Museum was a useful peg.
The concept inspired a spectacular set by John Malolepsy, whose cartoonlike clouds take on a surreal life of their own in Bob Foley's shimmering lights, a palette rich in turquoise and lavender and burnt orange. Add Alison Parker's wildly eclectic, fanciful costumes, and you have, visually, what may be the most striking park production ever.
For Dali watchers, there are at least two recognizable references to the artist and his work. A masked party includes feathered hats and veils that would look right at home on his fashionable wife, Gala; the guys also sport zany headgear. And the high crosses in the wedding scene are from The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.
But the Dali angle adds little, if anything, to understanding the intricately constructed narrative. Wisely, Olson didn't force it. He did a skillful job of cutting the play by about 40 percent while remaining faithful to the original. His one departure from the text, inserting a Shakespearean sonnet on "the marriage of true minds" in the wedding scene, was beautifully apt.
Two of the murkier plot turns - the virginal Hero's supposed seduction by a knave, which takes place offstage, and her faked death after Claudio rejected her at the altar - were clearly communicated, no small consideration when the picnicking audience can't be expected to have brushed up on its Shakespeare.
From a structural standpoint, Olson's version was a bit lopsided, with the first act running all the way to the start of the marriage ceremony, which is Act 4 in the five-act play. Unavoidably, a lot of the early going was taken up by exposition of the complicated plotting and establishment of character. After intermission, the play seemed in a rush to finish.
In any production of Much Ado About Nothing, the "merry war" of Beatrice and Benedick is what determines its success, and American Stage has a quirky, somewhat unlikely duo in Anna Stone and Matt Chiorini who keep things unpredictable. Stone's "Lady Disdain" has something of the vulnerable late-bloomer to her, self-consciously towering over Chiorini's impish, ponytailed bachelor. It's as if a bookish tomboy turned beauty fell for a ring-a-ding-ding swinger.
The elaborate eavesdropping theme kicked in when Benedick was tricked into believing his verbal sparring partner, Beatrice, loved him. Chiorini, scampering around a fountain, working the crowd for laughs, brought hilarious self-involvement to Benedick's soliloquy on love that led to his decision to propose marriage to Beatrice.
Stone's oblivion toward her strangely smitten rival was amusing, as she issued him a sarcastically reluctant dinner invitation. But Beatrice soon had happily-ever-after ideas of her own, breaking into an ode "to bind our loves up in a holy band."
When they finally speak of their love to each other, it is eloquent and touching. Then Beatrice delivers her fierce ultimatum that he must "Kill Claudio," which Benedick could never do to a comrade in arms. But when love meets male bonding, something has to give.
Almost everyone else revolves around Beatrice and Benedick. Hero, played by Emilia Sargent, is suitably sweet and pretty. Claudio, in John Bromels' performance, came across as shrill and petulant in the denunciation of his bride. Don Pedro, forcefully portrayed by Phil Wilcox, was the prototypical misogynist, all too quick to think the worst of a woman.
Bob Devin Jones, with fine voice and presence, brought dramatic heft to Don John, the "plain-dealing villain" whose lies set Claudio and Don Pedro against Hero. Don John's followers, Borachio (David Baker) and Conrade (Denis McCourt), have their moments. As Leonato, Steven Clark Pachosa ranges from genial host to distraught, vengeful dad of Hero.
Brian Shea and Joe Parra are effortlessly funny as constable Dogberry and his foil Verges, but they can't avoid becoming tedious in the drawn-out slapstick subplot. Colleen McDonnell has some of the play's freshest, most down-to-earth sentiments in her appealing performance as the friar who saves the day.
The actors were equipped with face mikes, and the vagaries of outdoor theatrical sound were mostly kept at bay on Friday night, though the pops and crackles occasionally threatened to get annoying.
Olson used a lot of recorded music tied in with the Spanish atmosphere, including tracks from the Gipsy Kings, salsa and flamenco guitar. Sometimes it worked well - the thrilling drumbeats that accompanied the arriving soldier's drill - but it could also become heavyhanded and noisy.
There's a limit to how much meaning can be mined from pop songs, and some of the big numbers, such as dance breaks during the masked party, Benedick's primping to a heavy-breathing love ballad, and the frenetic wedding reception, gave the impression of trying too hard.
Relief came in two songs, with Shakespeare's lyrics and music by Marcus Hummon, nicely performed by Messina's answer to Joni Mitchell, an attendant named Barbara, played by Julie Rowe. The second song set the tone for a haunting scene in which Claudio mourned for Hero while characters with umbrellas entered the stage.
With Much Ado About Nothing, American Stage presented its second consecutive park show done essentially as a nonmusical, and the trend will continue. Olson has announced that Henry V, Shakespeare's history play about the young warrior-king, will be next year's production.
REVIEW
Much Ado About Nothing, American Stage's Shakespeare in the Park production, runs through May 16 at Demens Landing, First Avenue S and Bayshore Drive, downtown St. Petersburg waterfront. 8 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Park opens for picnicking at 6 p.m. for ticket holders. General admission blanket seating: $12 Friday through Saturday advance, $14 at door; $9 Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday advance, $11 at door; free for ages 12 and under. Premier blanket seating: $18 advance, $20 at door any night. Reserved chairs: $22 any night. (727) 823-7529.
