Word: ado
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Furthermore, there is an unusual imbalance in the proportion of prose to poetry; Much Ado has fewer lines of verse than any other work in the canon except the farcical Merry Wives of Windsor. And the best writing in the play is in prose...
...keyword to both the play and this production is balance. Much Ado, like the other plays in Shakespeare's Renaissance style (as opposed to his Mannerist and Baroque styles), exhibited a good deal of symmetry. The central tragicomic Claudio-Hero plot is balanced by the high comedy of Beatrice and Benedick and the low comedy of Dogberry and Verges. The evil bastard Don John is a foil to his genial legitimate brother Don Pedro; and these young brothers contrast with the older-generation brothers Antonio and Leonato. Don John's two male attendants (Borachio and Conrade) balance. Hero's female...
...Festival has offered Much Ado twice before. In 1957 Alfred Drake was the most brilliant Benedick I've ever seen (perhaps partly because Drake is also a singer); but Katharine Hepburn was just no match for him. Then Philip Bosco was a magnificently vibrant Benedick in 1964, but Jacqueline Brookes couldn't come close...
...cast up to the level of his Beatrice and Benedick, almost to a man. Although the text rises and sags, all the component groups of characters come across on a rather evenly balanced level; it is this that makes the play seem better than it really is. This Much Ado is a real company show. Just about everyone speaks cleanly, crisply, intelligibly, and with adequate projection; and there are precious few of those unintentionally ear-assaulting vowels that mar most large-cast Shakespearean productions...
...look for anything more in this play than pure entertainment. As such, however, this production is the most nearly satisfying Much Ado in my experience...