Love's Labour's Won

It is arguable (by people far more into these things than I am) that "Much Ado About Nothing" is the renamed version fo Shakespeare's missing "Love's Labour's Won"; not that this affects this production directly. What does affect it is that it uses the same set, setting and cast (mostly) as Love's Labour's Lost. It also shares the same frenetic pace though in this case to much less succesful effect. In fact, my main concern about this production is its descent, in the first half, into pantomime. This is an excellent play and deserves a little more time for the audience to enjoy the language and to revel in the inter-play of the characters. Benedick's gulling turned rather too Norman Wisdom and was out of character with the remainder of the production, it was even more panto and ridiculous than Dogberry/Verges yet where was the pantomime villain - this Don Pedro was rather apologetic and more led by Boraccio than a super-baddy.

The set remained fabulous, as was the acting throughout - but the production did not gel for me and left me slightly disappointed if I'm honest