Much Ado About Nothing – Duke of York’s Theatre, London

Writer: William Shakespeare

Adapter: Debris Stevenson

Director: Josie Dexter

The National Youth Theatre’s new production of Much Ado About Nothing is delightfully exuberant. Cleverly adapted by Debris Stevenson, it retains the full plot and all the best lines of the original. But Stevenson’s brilliant conceit is that all the action takes place on Messina’s equivalent of Love Island.

We’re on the set of Nothing Island, with cheesy background of palm trees and a cheap and cheerful construction that is readily transformed into the various spaces of the reality show. Characters who need to deliver a monologue enter the Diary Room and emote while crew members hold up mats depicting another exotic beach scene, then roll them up again unceremoniously as soon as the speech is over.

The device works so well because it exposes the notable shallowness of many of the play’s characters. Twice the gullible Claudio is fooled: first believing Don Pedro has wooed Hero for himself, then easily tricked by contrived video footage of the Hideaway Window that Hero has given herself to Borachio. Don Pedro, rather than being the authority figure of the play, is just a posh idiot, as mercurial as the other characters. In a lovely move, Hannah Zoé Ankrah plays a mixture of the show’s compere and the priest who stage manages the final reconciliation.

Best of all, the staging gains a whole extra layer as the megaphone-wielding producer of the show delivers fabulous interpolated lines. When she yells ‘Give me drama!’, one dim character mistakenly thinks that’s his next line and dutifully repeats it. When Hero is rejected on her wedding day and collapses in agony, the producer is only concerned with the ratings. ‘Zoom in!’ she demands: ‘I need her face on screen!’. And when the participants are hell-bent on Hero having a showy send-off, she mutters despairingly : ‘We don’t have the budget for a big funeral’. Meanwhile on screen we see the reactions of ‘the socials’: ‘Twitter is going mad!’ someone gasps as a series of bizarre tweets scroll overhead. ‘The ratings are through the roof!’ It may not be Shakespeare, but it’s hilarious.

The partying of the young cast is a joy. The formal dances of the masked ball become the choreographed moves of the ensemble, now resplendent in outsized sunglasses. An exuberant DJ snorts cocaine backstage before her set, then appears to give a soulful mourning song for Hero. While characters flirt and tease centre stage, the male competitors perform spectacularly behind them. When it’s the women’s turn, they lift paltry weights and toy with a skipping rope.

Every aspect of the show is imaginatively thought through. And beyond this, the acting is tremendous. There is excellent ensemble work from the whole cast, whether Nothing Island particpants or put-upon stage crew. Best of all, at the heart of the play is the tortured, teasing relationship between Beatrice and Benedick. Renaissance jokes are retooled as the pair compete in a rap battle.

Isolde Fenton and Daniel Cawley work brilliantly as the sparring lovers and when they quietly reveal their true feelings to one another, there is an audible sigh from the audience. This is love – this is the real thing. Hero and Claudio may win the show, but it’s the hard-won love of the reluctant couple that wins our hearts.

Runs until 10 February 2023