Much Ado About Nothing review — exuberant romcom with a football twist

Times

23-04-2025

The testosterone roar of the football field combines with toxic social media chatter in an RSC production of Much Ado About Nothing that deals with everything from WAG rivalry to the bacchanalian excesses of bunga-bunga parties. Freema Agyeman's assured Beatrice is a soccer commentator dressed in chemical yellow with an acid tongue to match, a cool and confident presence in a world where each goal marks the difference between elation and despair.
Anyone who saw Jamie Lloyd's Much Ado About Nothing — starring Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London — might well have thought it had stolen this year's crown for hedonistic exuberance in interpreting Shakespeare's great rom-com. Yet the former Donmar artistic director Michael Longhurst — who, like Lloyd, gives us a giant heart as a backdrop and a dance routine with animal heads — goes further at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford with a plunge pool, a Taylor Swift-style Hero and a reincarnated Silvio Berlusconi.
Football stars and the highly charged culture of fans and influencers that surrounds them prove a natural fit for Shakespeare's play of returned military heroes. On Jon Bausor's cleverly adaptable set, with video projections on three sides that give us live TV commentary and social media feeds, we first meet Claudio (Daniel Adeosun) as the star who's scored the winning goal for Messina.
Often the romance between the young lovers Claudio and Hero is eclipsed by the witty war of words between Beatrice and Benedick, but Eleanor Worthington-Cox, as Hero, steals entire scenes with her comedy and singing talents. Dressed in Barbie pink, with peroxide blonde hair, she looks as if she might spontaneously combust when Claudio asks her to marry him, though she later asserts her cool when performing pop songs composed for the production by SuRie.
As Benedick, Nick Blood (of Slow Horses) grows in stature, so we see him evolving from cheeky commitment-phobe to emotionally honest lover. He pulls off some assured slapstick moves in a scene involving a massage table and a nearly nude plunge-pool incident, but also proves a compelling advocate when defending Hero's honour.
The portrayal of the fake allegations against Hero — complete with Photoshopping and an accompanying tirade of hollow social media hate — puts a powerfully unforgiving lens on how women in the public eye are treated today. When Agyeman's Beatrice angrily exhorts Benedick to save Hero's honour and he complies, it's a ringing evocation of footballers' enduring efforts to challenge what masculinity means in their sport.
Yet it's the comedy that wins through, not least with the help of Antonio Magro's verbally incontinent Dogberry. Premier League entertainment in every way.
★★★★☆
175min
rsc.org.uk