As it stages "Much Ado About Nothing, the Washington Shakespeare Company gives a new look to the Clark Street Playhouse, using spaces the public rarely sees and gives a new look to the lobby as well.
Unfortunately, while the performance that opened this weekend is visually memorable, it is a dramatically confusing production. The visual elements are striking and some of the performances are notable. But Michael Comlish's conception for one of Shakespeare's most muddled and confusing plays simply disguises the problems rather than solving them.
The problem is that "Much Ado About Nothing" is very aptly titled, really just a lengthy set of events that don't add up to much. As a comedy it isn't very funny, as a romance it isn't very attractive, as a drama it isn’t very interesting and as a tragedy it isn’t very profound.
So what's to like? There are a few fine performances, some special effects, lots of music and three striking settings in three different locations in the building.
Brook Butterworth takes her portrayal of Beatrice, the niece of the governor of an island between Italy and Sicily, from flirtatious giddiness to grief and back again. Christopher Henley gives unexpected depth to both parts he plays: a visiting prince and his bastard brother. Leo Wolfe sings some of his dialogue.
There is much going on in the portrayal of the smaller parts as well, but it remains much ado about a set of stories that don’t add up to much. The evening lasts more than three hours, as the tale of confusion over loves and marriages at the court unravels.
The primary plot involves a soldier who loves the Governor's daughter, but has a friend in disguise woo her for him. There are disguises on the other side as well, and on the eve of their wedding the bride-groom comes to believe that his bride has been unfaithful to him.
He holds his temper until the ceremony itself, so he can "speak now" when asked if "anyone knows why these two should not be joined." True love this is not.
Director Michael Comlish uses the splendid set designs by David C. Ghatan, lighting designer Lynn Joslin and sound designer Brian MacIan to entertain and entrance whenever the script veers too far from the central narrative - which is often.
The show starts out on a gigantic stage in the main house of the former warehouse now known as the Clark Street Playhouse. The stage's floor and back wall are painted white with a grid of red squares and many trap doors from which characters pop up or out.
As the evening progresses, the audience follows the players out into the lobby for a dramatically staged wedding ceremony at which they are the attendees. The wedding is followed by intermission with the concession stand open for business.
Then the audience is taken into yet a third area, a room behind the lobby that may normally be the scenery construction shop. For this act, the area is full of chairs of every size and description. The final scenes are acted out all around the edges of the room under starkly dramatic lighting effects.
Through it all, there is rich and varied incidental music, which ranges from an orchestra tuning up, to lush orchestral selections, to folk-music settings for Shakespeare's lines, pieces by Beethoven, Stravinsky and even "Making Whoopee."
Still, all the visual strength, the location gimmickry, the strong performances and the intriguing score cannot disguise the fact that this is, truly, much ado about nothing.