None of Shakespeare's lovers have tongues quite so witty as those of Beatrice and Benedick as they banter their way into matrimony in
Much Ado About Nothing. They're not the only lovers in this play, but the other set are serious Will and Kate types, while Beatrice and Benedick talk their way around each other with gibes and quips worthy of a couple of competing stand ups.
eg.
Beatrice: Against my will, I am sent to bid you come into dinner.
Benedick: Fair Beatrice, thank you for your pains.
Beatrice: I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me. If it had been painful, I would not have come.
Benedick: You take pleasure then in the message?
Beatrice: Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point. You have no stomach, signor? Fare you well.
Benedick: Ha. "Against my will I am sent to bid you come into dinner." There's a double meaning in that.
And who would be better in these rolls than a couple 'o actors who have already tested out their faux-romantic-chemistry on TV? Which is why this production of the play, at the
Wyndham, starring
Catherine Tate and
David Tennant is bound to be one of the hottest tickets in town. It's already a hilarious play, but it promises to be even funnier with these two quipping and biting at each other.
Tate and Tennant have a lot more theatrical pedigree than people realise, they've both done a lot more than just
Doctor Who. Tennant helped put a lot of new 'bums of seats' when he did
Hamlet right after finishing
Doctor Who, but he was a Royal Shakespeare Company regular before that, so Benedick is a character he's just been waiting to 'grow into', and prior to this Tate was appearing in Alan Ayckbourn's
Season's Greetings at the National Theatre and getting
great reviews for it.
While Beatrice and Benedick don't have too easy a time of it much of their plight is self inflicted – by their tongues working at high speed – but the other set of lovers has far more pre-marital trouble, and this time it's not their fault at all. The baddie in the story is the brother of the local prince, who's bent on getting the Wills character believing that the Kate character has been unfaithful – all the way. Which leads to him spurning her, and accusing her of impurity at the altar –
which would have made for a dramatic turn of events at the royal wedding. Luckily Beatrice and Benedick et al, are able to use their wits for good and come up with a way to convince Wills that he was wrong about Kate so there's a happy outcome for all. Well, this is one of Shakespeare's best loved comedies, not a tragedy, so you knew the ending was going to be a happy one.
Josie Rourke, whose full time gig is as the Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre, is directing, and if you know anything about directors then you'll know this this is an excellent, and rather exciting sign.
