The Bawdy Bard Goes Digital in Much Ado Redo

I just attended a presentation of Much Ado About Nothing by the all-volunteer Little Theater of Virginia Beach (LTVB).

This contemporary version is set in Hampton Roads, VA, but retains Shakespeare's words intact with a few comical additions referencing the local area. Little Theater of Virginia Beach notes, "Beatrice (Cassandra Dean) and Benedick's (John Moss) famous love-hate relationship meets the 21st Century in this fresh new adaptation of the Bard's rom-com about meddling matchmakers, misguided messages, mistaken meanings, and mischief all around."

The iconic play has been "digitally enhanced" by the LTVB with contemporary costumes and songs, rousing pop music and dance routines and various sight gags - including some juicy ones at Benedick's expense.

All the characters seem to be surgically attached to their cell phones, promulgating confusion and miscommunication as their texts are projected on the theater wall for visual eavesdropping by the audience.

This version was brilliantly adapted and directed by Kay Lynn Perry whose program notes inform theater goers that the word "nothing" in the title had a different meaning in Elizabethan times. The word was pronounced "noting" at that time, and it was considered to be another word for observing. In this play the ramifications of eavesdropping, snooping and seemingly innocent meddling have devastating consequences, though thankfully "all's well that ends well" for everyone except Don Pedro's villainous half-sibling.

But the title is also a pun about, ahem, ladyparts, as "nothing"/"no-ting" was a euphemism for girly bits, labelled by the Elizabethans as "nothing/noting" due to being perceived as a vacant love tunnel. So Shakespeare's title invites theatre goers to be prepared for some bodacious Bardic bawdiness.

"Much Ado-- is my favorite Shakespeare play, in part because of Kenneth Branagh's 1993 film, which he directed and starred in with then-wife Emma Thompson along with Robert Sean Leonard, Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, Keanu Reeves, and Kate Beckinsale in her film debut. The film remains one of the most financially successful Shakespeare films, earning $22 million at the U.S. box office and $43 million worldwide. Whenever I plan to attend live Shakespearian theater, I like to watch the movie version beforehand, and I recommend Branagh's film if you want to brush up on the Bard before reveling in a live production.

Like Branagh's masterpiece, the Little Theater of Virginia Beach's version includes non-traditional casting, but it expands beyond the boundaries of race to also include gender-reversed casting. The role of Leonato, now Leonata, is played by film, TV and Broadway veteran Carolyn Collings. Don Pedro's half-brother Don John has also had a sex change and is now half-sister Lady Jean, played with delicious diabolicalness by Madeleine Dilley. Friar Francis is replaced by Sister Francis and Dogberry and his cohorts have switched genders as well.

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