Sometimes the one you love is the one you despise. Sometimes it's the person who's been there all along. Think of the fate of Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse ("handsome, clever, and rich") or Shakespeare's Beatrice (headstrong, dismissive and entitled).
In "Much Ado About Nothing," Beatrice and Benedick spar like Kate and Petruchio. But it is a paradoxical certainty that their repulsion will propel them together in the end. Describing a clan of small-time nobles on the island of Sicily, this archetypal romantic comedy — the formula for Austen novels and Hollywood capers alike — is happily fizzing up Georgia Shakespeare's summer season like prosecco shaken with sparkling water.
Director Richard Garner mixes his cocktail from the kinetic wit of Courtney Patterson (Beatrice) and Joe Knezevich (Benedick). He adds a dash of bitters via the subplot involving tender lovers Hero (Ann Marie Gideon) and Claudio (Eugene H. Russell IV), and the pernicious Don John (Maxim Gukhman). He garnishes it with the nitwit twist of Dogberry (Chris Kayser) and his country-bumpkin crew, and serves it in a sturdy and efficient vessel designed by Kat Conley.
"Much Ado" is a refreshing elixir in a hot summer season that includes the already opened "Illyria: a Twelfth Night Musical" and the forthcoming "Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde, opening July 6. More importantly, it's a welcome sign the financially troubled institution that almost closed its doors last fall has stared down death with another comedic triumph.
The set design, fashioned after a formal Mediterranean garden with urns of flowers and a pool, may not pack the visual opulence of productions past, and Sydney Roberts' Elizabethan-meets-Plymouth Rock costumes are a bit of a snooze. But that's OK. There's nothing slight about the terrific ensemble, which includes not only a cadre of good-looking principals, also but a fine supporting cast that pulls off poignant surprises and delicious tomfoolery.
Consider Marianne Fraulo's outraged Antonia, who steps up to defend her niece's reputation, and Seth Langer, an Oglethorpe University student who shows great versatility as the eloquent First Messenger and toothy goofus George Seacole. Well done, everyone.
What a jerk is Gukhman's Don John. What an exercise in restraint is Mark Cabus' Don Pedro. (Not for long, though: Cabus will wear the wig of Lady Bracknell in the upcoming "Earnest"). What a lovely and affecting character is Gideon's Hero, who must get kicked to the ground by her father Leonato (Allen O'Reilly) before she can stand proud again. If I have a quibble or two, it is perhaps that the bullying of Hero is a bit over-the-top for such a frothy comedy, and the show feels a little long-winded overall.
In this tale of blind love, Patterson portrays Beatrice with warmth and vitality. And she is well matched by Knezevich, who does some of his best work lying crouched beside the pool, in panic mode as he tries to hide behind a suddenly portable urn of flowers and in other (dare we say "splashy"?) moments.
"Much Ado" is about the twin faces of love: It is merry war; it is fragility and pain. It's a joy to see Georgia Shakespeare deliver such a fluent, accessible and impeccably crafted telling.
There's much to like about this "Much Ado."
Theater review
"Much Ado About Nothing"
Grade: B+
8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. 2 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. 7 p.m. Sundays.
(In rotating repertory, so times vary by date.) $13-$45. Georgia Shakespeare, Oglethorpe University, 4484 Peachtree Road N.E., Atlanta, 404-504-1473. gashakespeare.org
Bottom line: A delightful take on Shakespeare's "Much Ado."
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