Word: leonato
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Bernard Shaw referred to the work as "Much Adoodle-do" and branded it "a shocking bad play." That's going too far. But it is a minor work. Its borrowed main plot is preposterous and flawed; and Shakespeare was pretty careless now and then (twice he even calls for Leonato's wife Innogen to come on stage, though she neither speaks nor is ever spoken to or about...
...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 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...
There is some variation, of course. Tony Thomas' Messenger is too studied in speech. On the other hand, the best delivery in the whole show comes from William Glover's warm Leonato; so skillful is he that he sounds as though he had spoken nothing but Shakespearean English all his life...
...what can be done by long and dedicated hard work without any pronounced help from lady luck. In the early seasons of the Festival, Colicos was just one of the many actors doing yeoman service in small parts. From Lodovico in Othello, Gratiano in The Merchant of Venice, and Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing, Colicos was advanced to the important supporting roles of Laertes in Hamlet and Lysander in Midsummer Night's Dream. Then, in the final offering of the 1958 season, he was entrusted with the central role of The Winter's Tale. His Leontes was flawed...