Word: borachio
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...direction is not poor--it is just overenthusiastic. Among the many memorable scenes, the arrest of Conrade (Josh Walker) and Borachio (Michael Johnson) brilliantly conveys the stupid pomposity of Dogberry (Marc Jones) and the idiocy of his sidekicks on the nightwatch (Kitt Hirasaki and Alan Glazer). The complicated staging of the fight in the background in conjunction with Dog-berry's stirring monologue betrays thoughtful, original and energetic direction...
...Pedro's brother, Don John (Ian Lithgow), on the other hand, is interpreted as a buffoon. He is a Peter Ustinov-style villain, bumbling and ineffectual. The comic actors take the Shakespearean "rude mechanical" to the limit. Dogberry and Verges (Tom Giordano) revel in the slapstick. So, too, do Borachio and Conrade--at times at the expense of the darker, more thoughtful side of the play...
...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 ones (Margaret and Ursula). Claudio and Hero, on one hand, and Beatrice and Benedick, on the other, both find a rocky road to the wedding altar; and the two plots involving these pairs both hinge on deception and credulousness...
...apparently by false analogy with Pinocchio. The Italian name is properly spelled Petruccio, and the Shakespeare Folio made it Petruchio precisely to provide a phonetic spelling for English-speaking actors. Thus it should be pronounced with a ch-sound as in "church." (The identical situation obtains with the name Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing.) Furthermore, Shrew's verse requires, except in three or four lines, that Petruchio be trisyllabic (just as it is in Italian...
...smaller parts, Fletcher Coleman is a compelling Borachio; and Meredydd Evans sings Balthasar's songs pleasantly. Charles Lewis is notable in the double roles of a messenger and the sexton. And little Hayward Morse adds a lot as a boy in the governor's household...
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