RSC Much Ado About Nothing review - Bling and beauty as Bard goes Premier League in Stratford

All too often in Shakespeare’s comedies, one may merely smile at the follies of the lovers in their stumbling quests for happiness - that’s if one is not too bewildered by the plot. But in the RSC’s season opener, Much Ado About Nothing, set in the world of premier league football, you really care about the characters and are hooked on their dilemmas. You may even shed a happy tear or two at the end when the warring couples finally put aside all quarrels (for now) and walk down the aisle.

I'll wager this may be one of the most technically beautiful shows the RSC has staged in a long while, the boldness of the stage design and complex, timed-to-the-nano-second effects artfully balanced with great taste beneath the bling. The stage is huge, seemingly stretching way back into the depths of the theatre, and works on two levels, including an upper floor which drops down to reveal, or hide, the goings on in the bedroom.

It would be worth seeing for the stagecraft alone. But the performances are terrific. Beatrice is sometimes played as a sharp tongued harridan. Not so here. She has intellect and reason behind her objection to marriage, well founded in the environment in which she lives. For behind the glamour of the setting there are massive and outrageous egos on the prowl. This is a world in which testosterone rules. Women run the risk of being merely trophies, useful as long as they look good on the arm of their man. Unless, that is, they are smart enough and ruthless enough to survive for longer than a season.

Benedick (Nick Blood) starts off as one of the lads, wisely wary of commitment, yet perversely attracted to his soulmate-in waiting, Beatrice (Freema Agyeman). Claudio (Daniel Adeoson), his friend, is softer, immediately stricken with Hero (Eleanor Worthington-Cox), who happens to be the daughter of Leonto (Peter Forbes), owner of Messina FC, and thus the team’s godfather. This could be the perfect marriage, in and out of the media glare. All seems set to go well, notwithstanding the ribbing the lads get from their mates, until the villain of the piece, wicked Don John (Nojan Khazai), pours poison in the ear of Claudio by arranging to ‘prove’ to him that Hero is not chaste.

Chastity is not something one would normally associate with this world of extravagance and spectacle, but the idea is crucial to Shakespeare’s plot, and so Hero is portrayed seemingly as a perfect Barbie. Yet in the abuse heaped upon her inside the club and outside in the world of social media, where she is trolled mercilessly on giant screens above and around the stage, there is obvious and real suffering, and one can believe in her innocence of mind. Claudio’s mistake, to believe what he is told rather than what he knows, has poignancy that goes way beyond the plot itself.

This production genuinely has something for everyone, and if one had never seen or thought of liking Shakespeare one could do far worse than seeing it, for it is hugely entertaining and hugely relevant.

Until May 24. Visit rsc.org.uk or call 01789 331111 to book.