MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING: A SPECIAL NIGHT AT THE THEATRE

“ Sigh no more Ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever, One foot  in Sea, and one on shore, To one thing constant never…”

Dear readers, we would like to share with you one of our best experiences so far.  We went  to the Globe Theatre in Rome to see one of Shakespeare’s most entertaining comedies: “Much Ado About Nothing”.

It was a new experience for us because we saw a play in English for the first time! We know,  we were crazy.  Shakespeare's  English is not for everyone!

A GLOBE THEATRE IN ROME?

If you are wondering, yes, we have a replica of the Globe also in Rome. Italians love William Shakespeare so much that they built an Elizabethan playhouse inside Villa Borghese  where they stage perform Shakespearean plays especially.

We saw the  replica of the Globe in London and the structures are quite similar. Circular, no roof, jetted apron stage onto the arena, three rows of roofed galleries, mainly made of wood. Did we forget anything?

THE PLOT

As we said before, the play that we saw was “Much ado about nothing”. If you do not know what it concerns, this is the plot.

Young lovers Hero and Claudio are going to be married in one week. To pass the time, they conspire with Don Pedro to set a "lover's trap" for Benedick, an arrogant confirmed bachelor, and Beatrice, his favourite sparring partner. Meanwhile, the evil Don Jon conspires to break up the wedding by accusing Hero of infidelity.

THE ACTING COMPANY

The theatrical company that performed Much Ado is called Bedouin Shakespeare Company. It was made up of both English and Italian actors. For example, the actress who played Beatrice is the daughter of popular  Italian comedian,  Gigi Proietti, who is also the director of the Globe.

They decided to change something from the original play. In fact, the characters of Don John and Leonato were acted by women and became Donna John and Leonata.

We liked these changes a lot, they just worked for us. In our opinion, Don John as a woman became more intriguing and made the psychology of the character more complex. Then, women can be evil can’t they?

To know more about the plot and the acting company  CLICK HERE

OUR MUSINGS

What an amazing experience! We liked going to the theatre but this was the first time we had to cope with a play in Elizabethan English but we enjoyed it a lot! Seeing it sitting in a typical Elizabethan theatre has also been fascinating.  It was exactly like the real Globe we read about at school. The play was amazing, the actors were awesome and the atmosphere was magic! William Shakespeare was an excellent playwright; he wrote such wonderful plays!

We hope we will have the opportunity of watching other plays when the theatre reopens in spring.

We also asked  some of the students who were with us what they think about Shakespeare and his plays. You can find their opinions in the video below.

(Many thanks to Margherita, Marco, Matteo and the kind guy from the staff for accepting being featured in our video!)

What do you think about Shakespeare? Do you like his works? Tell us in the comment!

Chiara & Camilla