Much Ado About Nothing REVIEW MTC 19 Nov 2025 ***

THEATRE

By William Shakespeare

By Melbourne Theatre Company

At The Sumner, Southbank Theatre  until 19 Dec 2025

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***

This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 29 Nov 2025. KH

Alison Bell, Fayssal Bazzi. Photo by Gregory Lorenzutti

 

Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is often celebrated for its nimble repartee, tender romance and dark undercurrents, but this MTC production, directed by Mark Wilson, pushes the comedy pedal to the floor—at the cost of the play’s emotional ballast. What begins as a promising collision of wit and slapstick gradually dissolves into a frenetic parade of gags that smother the subtler shifts in Shakespeare’s tonal landscape.

 
Set in Messina, the play follows two intertwining love stories The young lovers, Hero (Miela Anich) and Claudio (Remy Heremaia), prepare for marriage until the villainous Don John (Chanella Macri) engineers a cruel deception that leads Claudio to publicly shame Hero. Meanwhile, the sharp-tongued Beatrice (Alison Bell) and the swaggering bachelor Benedick (Fayssal Bazzi) are tricked into confessing their secret affections. In the end, misunderstandings unravel, villains are exposed, and love—bruised but intact—wins the day.

 

The opening ten minutes bode well, with the competitive, satirical sparring between Beatrice and Benedick  capturing the lyrical wit and verbal acrobatics that make Shakespeare sparkle. Bell, deliciously wicked and razor-sharp, shapes the language with clarity and confidence, while Bazzi brings a boyish, audacious charm to her adversary.

 

But Wilson’s production soon tilts into excess and overacting. Every scene, every character—even those written without comedic intent—becomes a vessel for a visual gag, pratfall or slapstick antic. The audience roars, certainly, but often at moments that beg for gravitas. Hero’s shaming and ensuing feigned death—an episode that sits close to tragedy—is played with parody that feels inappropriate and dramatically tone-deaf. The Prince’s (John Shearman) absurd dance-lament at Hero’s tomb undermines one of the play’s moments of sincerity.

 

Shakespeare’s darker or dramatic elements traditionally counterpoint the comic, giving depth to the merry chaos. Here, that balance is lost. The relentless push for a laugh every thirty seconds mistrusts the ability of the audience to accept the drama or, perhaps,  to understand the interdependence of comedy and drama.

 

The production’s most obvious misstep is a prolonged and lurid, simulated sexual encounter on the balcony that is the start of Don John’s malicious deception. Rather than revealing the nastiness of the trick, the staging cheapens the moment and distracts from its emotional fallout.

 

The inimitable Julie Forsyth is the unmistakable highlight. As Dogberry and Ursula (among other characters), she delivers a performance that is both meticulously detailed and hilarious. Her every entrance is a relief. Yes, the trademark Forsyth rasp remains, but each character she crafts is etched with distinct eccentricity, rhythm and physical precision. Her performance is a masterclass in how to play broad comedy without flattening nuance.

 

The sprawling open stage—with costumes changes and backstage action visible—offers potential, but ultimately feels conceptually adrift. And the screen projection of a giant female portrait (Is it Pamela Anderson?) seems to bear no discernible relationship to the production’s themes or aesthetic.

 

Despite an ardent, cheering opening-night crowd, this Much Ado lacks the dramatic balance that allows Shakespeare’s romantic comedy to breathe, bruise and charm. The play’s layers are there, but the production just won’t sit still long enough to let us see them.

 

by Kate Herbert 

 

CAST

·       Alison Bell - Beatrice

·       Fayssal Bazzi  - Benedick 

·       Julie Forsyth -Dogberry / Ursula / Others

·       Miela Anich - Hero / Borachio

·       Remy Heremaia - Claudio

·       John Shearman - Don Pedro (The Prince)

·       Chanella Macri  - Don John/Margaret

·       Syd Brisbane - Leonato ­

John Shearman, Remy Heremaia, Fayssal Bazzi, Syd Brisbane, Julie Forsyth, Alison Bell, Chanella Macri, Miela Anich. Photo by Gregory Lorenzutti

Creative Team

·       Mark Wilson - Director

·       Anna Cordingley - Set Designer

·       Kariné Larché  - Costume Designer

·       Joe Paradise Lui  - Lighting Designer

·       Michelle Heaven – Choreographer –

·       Voice Coach - Geraldine Cook-Dafner

·       Lyndall Grant  - Fight / Movement Choreographer