It’s William Shakespeare meets “Pirates of the Caribbean” with Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan’s (SOTS) production of Much Ado About Nothing, the first of this year’s main stage plays.
And in this Thursday night preview, the highs definitely won out over any lows for a gorgeous and fun-filled experience – one so well-acted that you’ll forget this isn’t always supposed to be a pirate-y play.
Much Ado About Nothing is a classic tale of Shakespearean-era silliness. Claudio (Jonathon Pickrell) returns from war and falls in love with Hero (Amanda Trapp). Claudio’s friend Benedick (Ed Mendez), a sharp wit and eternal bachelor, enjoys verbally sparring with Hero’s cousin Beatrice (Elizabeth Nepjuk). While the families and friends attempt to make Benedick and Beatrice fall in love with each other, the villainous and petty Don John (Sean Hoy) sets out to spoil Claudio and Hero’s wedding any way that he can.
Directed by Anita Smith, this pirate-themed production fires on all cylinders in the first half. The show begins with a rousing display of swashbuckling swordplay (credit to resident fight director Daniel Ford Beavis) and moves swiftly into witty wordplay. If you’re not familiar with all the nuances of Shakespearean language, don’t fret – the cast does a fantastic job of reacting in such a way that you know exactly when Beatrice is getting a good jab in on Benedick and vice versa.
And this review cannot go any further without celebrating the costume design work of the ever-talented Beverley Kobelsky. The pirate coats and Jack Sparrow-esque braided beads and baubles hanging from many a pirate’s hair gave the whole thing an air of dashing delight that uplifted many moments from very good to great.
Smith does a great job of putting her cast in a position to excel, from the dashing and charismatic Don Pedro (Mitchell Larsen) who just wants to be everyone’s friend, to the entertaining chemistry between the romantic couples.
The real standouts of the show are Mendez and Nepjuk as the bickering Benedick and Beatrice. Mendez plays the arc of his character so convincingly, going from staunch anti-love bachelor to an eager and star-struck romantic before our eyes. Nepjuk’s fiery and stubborn Beatrice follows a similar but no less entertaining path, and the intensity Nepjuk can summon at a moment’s notice is a great talent.
But it’s their chemistry together that sparked energy for the whole show. Whenever the two were on stage together, you couldn’t help but lean forward in anticipation of what might happen next.
If the first act is the laughing excitement of a roller coaster dropping into a steep dive, the second act is the slow ratcheting back up to the top for more. Maybe it’s a product of how absolutely near perfect the first half was, but the second does not live up to it in terms of energy or wit or pure sharp-edged fun.
Part of that is, of course, how the script is divided up – we’ve spent half the show setting up some nefarious hijinks, we do have to actually deal with them at some point – but everything that felt easy and seamless in the first half just fell a little flatter in the second.
As the play went on, it did feel like moments were being overly played up just to get laughs. Shakespeare’s writing is plenty silly and fun on its own, and some of those over-the-top choices did result in dialogue being lost. But don’t let this curmudgeonly reviewer spoil the fun — the audience watching the preview performance was absolutely delighted at every single joke.
Even after losing that momentum in the second act, the final scenes wrap everything neatly with a sharp return to form.
Much Ado About Nothing is a hilarious and high-energy production, and a great way to get into Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan or just Shakespearean plays by themselves. It’s dashing, well-directed, beautifully designed and devilishly well-acted – the real definition of fun for the whole family.
And if you can’t get excited about a play that closes with a dance set to “The Last Saskatchewan Pirate,” what can you get excited about?
You can find tickets for Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan at shakespearesask.com.
