Much Ado About Nothing (no, really, the play)

[neadods]

I am finally watching the Tate/Tennant Much Ado. (Legally, I hasten to add; M bought the download.)

My original reservations about the time setting still apply; I'm having trouble reconciling the language and the visuals. After that, though, I'm finding it peppered with interpretations that I haven't seen in any of the other productions before (and that's rather saying a lot for this play.)

Oh, and no I'm not going to cut-tag a past production of a 400-year-old play, so onward!

"Will you have me, lady?" Up to the Thompson/Branagh movie, I'd always seen that moment played as a joke; the prince isn't serious. It still sort of throws me that he's serious in the T/B movie and she's serious back. Here is half and half - he's serious, she blows him off thinking he was joking, and then spends the rest of the scene half hysterically trying to either get him to laugh or get herself to stop blurting out what she thinks. It's hard to describe, but it's working.

It's also one of several moments when we are reminded that Catherine Tate is first and foremost a Famous Comedienne - she's doing excellent work, but she's also very much A Famous Comedienne.

The other thing that's surprising me is that it's the first time I've seen Don John not as the main shit-stirrer, but more like the stirring stick. His henchmen are playing him like a fiddle. (No wonder the prince agreed to take him back; he wants to be dangerous but isn't on his own.)

There may be updates - I'm writing this during the Dogberry parts, as I always found him overrated. But I'm surprised to find that there's more here than a novelty setting and stunt casting.

Comments

[jennetj.livejournal.com]

I saw it a couple of weeks ago (also bought legit - pissed that I can't burn to disk and watch on telly but must watch with their player). I enjoyed it, but I thought Catherine Tate was too much Catherine Tate and not enough Beatrice. She did too much schtick and takes to the audience which pulled me out of the play, which was a shame, because I know she's much better than that. In the times when she didn't fall back on being Catherine Tate I thought she was very good. I did like DT's Benedick, though it could hardly be called a nuanced performance (mind, Benedick isn't terribly nuanced anyway). I lay a lot of the blame for this at the feet of the director, and I say this with nothing but affection for Josie Rourke, who has worked twice for CST, once with a brilliant Twelfth Night (remember my stories about the pool), and once with a Shrew that tried very hard but didn't really work. It's in the second category that I put MAAN. Josie likes the broad strokes. Sometimes they work; sometimes they try too hard.

I did find the replacement of Antonio the brother with Imogene the wife to be a credible change. I'm not quite sure why she did it, but that worked. And I thought the Watch scenes worked as well as they ever do - they're not my favorites (rustics and clowns are seldom my favorites).

I have to say my favorite take on MAAN was the Shakespeare Retold version wherein at the end Hero tells Claudio to get stuffed. I always find that much more believable.

Still, I'm glad I got the chance to see this version. I just wish I could keep it on video instead of on my PC.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The terrible problem with having it on computer is... What happens when that computer inevitably dies?

I'll happily blame a lot on the director; we know from Who that Tate can do subtle. But both she and David seemed to be told "go thou forth and fanservice!"

i waffle on adding in the wife; this is a male-heavy play, for all that it centers on Beatrice and could use another woman On the other hand, you'd also expect Hero's mother to stand up for her at the big deninciation.

And yeah... This is not a plot that updates at all; a modern Hero should kick him in the nuts!

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

As I kept thinking during the Branagh-Thompson version: "Short, dark hair, screws like a weasel-- yep, gotta be my fiancée" (whom he'd never screwed, so he wouldn't know).

Not to mention-- at least in that version-- that the maid who IS being screwed has a guy loudly moaning someone else's name in her ear the whole time, so that the guys down in the street can hear him. He shoulda been kicked in the nuts too, right then. Seemed implausible that she didn't, since she was not a shrinking violet.

K says the content should be on a file somewhere on your computer, and if you dig around it should be findable and movable. "They may make it difficult to copy, but if you know what you're doing, you should be able to do it."

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Not to mention-- at least in that version-- that the maid who IS being screwed has a guy loudly moaning someone else's name in her ear the whole time, so that the guys down in the street can hear him. He shoulda been kicked in the nuts too, right then. Seemed implausible that she didn't, since she was not a shrinking violet.

Same in this version. Seriously, why does Margaret never react to this?

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

Is it available as DVD already? I loathe legal downloads for all their complications

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I heard that there wasn't going to be a DVD, alas.