Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s new production of “Much Ado About Nothing,” Shakespeare’s wittiest comedy, is a most delightful experience: warm-centered, unpretentious of conceit, caring for its audience, and filled with simple yet sparkling scenes celebrating the pleasures of passionate language and the timeless fun and games of courtship.
It is less interested in the price those rituals can, and do, extract, especially on young women, which is its main Act 2 flaw, given that Shakespeare actually was exploring those questions in some depth here.
But if you fear boredom when attending Shakespeare, you need have no such worries here. Directed by the British actress-turned-director Selina Cadell, this live-wire, family-friendly production on Navy Pier takes in the entire theater with its clear and confident storytelling, interacting with the audience as if we are all on vacation together on a lovely summer day on the island of Sicily. Without having to show our IDs and hit the metal detector.
Most fans of living, breathing Shakespearean productions, such as this writer, crave experiences where a modern audience genuinely finds itself in the thrall of the Bard’s language, fully comprehensible when acted as if freshly minted and with this level of focus on being understood. So it goes here as Deborah Hay’s Beatrice and Mark Bedard’s Benedick find their way to each other.
Both of those actors are, well, mature. And very, very good. I always think casting a pair beyond the first blush of youth in these justly beloved roles deepens everyone’s experience. If you listen closely to what Beatrice in particular has to say, she is not so much choosing among men, or even sparring for the fun of it, as wondering aloud whether she needs a man at all — having pretty much determined that she does not. It’s only when a traumatic event makes Beatrice realize that pain can be eased when shared that she opens herself to Benedick, and that means the audience has to trust that man to take care of this remarkable woman, which in turn means that Benedick himself has to be vulnerable when it matters, and not just your standard-issue militarized man. All of that is in place here. You believe in the ongoing equality of this couple but also in their mutual capacity for caring and love.
This “Much Ado’ has a notably diverse cast. Indeed, thanks to the authoritative Debo Balogun, who makes for rich Don Pedro; Samuel B. Jackson, who plays Claudio and the very funny Jaylon Muchison, in a variety of comic roles, it functions as quite the showcase for the Black male acting talent now living in Chicago. I mention this particularly because we are watching a romantic comedy here, precisely the kind of show wherein we should be seeing such actors, but still rarely do.
“Much Ado” is one of Shakespeare’s plays that tracked the passage of time in the theater of its first production: it starts out on a sunny afternoon and, as dusk arrives, romantic combatants become needier and things go wrong for Claudio and his young romantic partner Hero (Mi Kang), jealousy threatening to turn comedy into tragedy.
Hero, whose name is no accident, then takes on almost a Christ-like significance, making Claudio’s eventual redemption possible. His penitence (and her forgiveness of his sins) come a tad too quickly here for my tastes and I’d argue that some of the serious moments involving those rituals are overly compromised for laughs, a couple of which break the show’s own rules. But that’s probably a matter of interpretive difference, given the many overlapping themes of this great comedy. And when it comes to the comic Dogberry-and-constables subplot (here showcasing Sean Fortunato, Suzanne Hannau and Joey Chelius), I can’t remember seeing another production where those guys extracted as many yuks, which is really the entire point of their existence. Heck, their scenes are heavily cut by most directors. Here, they earn their time on stage.
Overall, Cadell clearly wanted to deliver the kind of show that can warm us all up as winter bears down on Chicago. Check, for sure. Even Erik Hellman’s Don John strums a guitar as he is (presumably) led off to an unhappy fate and Kevin Gudahl’s Leonato has a big grin on his face for most of the evening, a proud dad watching everything work out in the end.
Delightful.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “Much Ado About Nothing” (3.5 stars)
When: Through Dec. 21
Where: Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier
Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Tickets: $65-$132 at 312-595-5600 and chicagoshakes.com
