“for I will be horribly in love with her” ~ Benedick, Much Ado About Nothing
I went to see a modern rendition of Much Ado last night at the Naples Community Theatre. Claudio was horrible. Simply horrible. It is hard to like his character already, and the play only made the task more difficult. Both Dogberry and Benedick, however - very good. It was correctly noted (pun intended) that I could not contain my laughter every time Dogberry appeared on stage. I honestly do not know why this happened - my enjoyment in the presentation of Dogberry was something that is even now hard to explain so I am no longer going to try.
Take a walk back to the wonderful portrayal of Beatrice in the 1993 Branagh film. Though last night’s Beatrice was definitely quite good, nothing could match Emma Thompson’s Beatrice, especially because she brought me to love this play in the first place.
