Not even a genius could make Much Ado About Nothing funny

The RSC’s 2014 version of Much Ado is breathtaking to look at. Sets, lighting and costumes are exquisitely done, even if the location is not established with absolute clarity. The date is Christmas 1918 and we’re in a stately home that has been converted into a billet, or a hospital, for returning soldiers. The prickly Beatrice (Michelle Terry) seems to be an unemployed aristocrat working as a volunteer nurse. She fusses around the ward making discreet enquiries about an old flame, Benedick, whose memory she can’t shake off. Enter Benedick played by Edward Bennett and the fun starts. These two absolutely get inside the skins of their characters. Terry’s portrait of spiky seductiveness is riveting to watch and Bennett has an amazing range of effects at his disposal. He’s graceful, confident, easy-going and slightly goofy with it. Warmth oozes from him. He may lack the classic good looks of a leading man but he somehow evokes the shade of Cary Grant. He’s one of our most underused actors.

Director Christopher Luscombe has invented some wonderful physical comedy involving a Christmas tree and a snaffled glass of whisky. But not even a genius could make the Dogberry scenes funny. When people claim that Shakespeare couldn’t write comedy they cite the watchmen in Much Ado. Not only do these bungling fools have no amusing lines but their scenes go on far too long without reaching a climax. Nick Haverson has the thankless task of playing Dogberry as an unlettered London bobbie. Doubtless Shakespeare and his audiences were amused by ill-educated characters and their verbal blunders (confusing ‘execute’ with ‘interrogate’), but nowadays we call this failing illiteracy or dyslexia and we regard it as a cause for sympathy and treatment rather than mockery.

Charlie Ward at Home also has a first world war setting.