Sarah Davey - Director
Adrian Lillie - Designer
Georgina King - Assistant Designer
Lisa Westerhout - Music
Julian Blundell - Boracchio/Messenger
Ian Cairns - Don Pedro
Phillip Edgerley - Don John
Kirsty Yates - Margaret/Friar
Sarah Goddard - Beatrice/Verges
Vincent John - Claudio
Ross MacDonald - Benedick
Geoffrey Towers - Leonato
Charlotte Windmill - Hero/Dogberry
After ten years of some of the best outdoor Shakespeare seen in Oxford, bold & saucy have reinvented themselves as the Oxford Shakespeare Company. No need to worry though; they've not lost their touch for uncluttered staging, approachable performances and supremely natural acting. Oxford Weekly Information Oxford Times Oxford Weekly Information Oxford Times
nearly pantomime, nearly farce, very funny.
Oxford Times
Excellent mix of language, timing and delivery
Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeares comedy of love, arguments and slander, starts happy in its garden setting, with dancing, croquet, and the risk of being pulled into the action, as the audience stands in for courtiers and hedges and the villains swirl their coats…
Challenges are what theatre in the open air is full of ¯ the weather, the bugs, the drop in temperature as the night progresses. But it is also a great place to be, and that was anywhere where the action took place ¯ garden, dining hall, ballroom, goal or even the street…
'Pay no attention to that man
Behind the curtain'
The Wizard of Oz Sarah Davey
June 2002
I'm one week into Much Ado About Nothing rehearsals. What is this play about?
On day one, we thought the play was about (and I list these in no particular order), power struggles, youth versus age, nothing, loving war, ego, soldiers and courtiers, peace, pride, nobility in stupidity, sparring partners, illusion and reality, love, jealousy and honour, envy, status, passion for life, slander, misogyny, sisterhood, pride and prejudice, gender, hidden feelings.
We spend the rest of the week and will spend this week, inching our way through the play, scene by scene, analysing character, motivation, relationships, being trees.
Playing a moment over and over again until instinctively the scene feels right.
The week after this we will run acts together, look for the through line. We'll play it for the comedy. We'll play it for the tragedy. We might even play it for the tragicomedy. We'll make decisions on things we have been trying a number of different ways. We'll also forget lines, have fits of the giggles and there may be tears.
The week after that we'll definitely panic. Bore for England about the play and probably get drunk once or twice. More panic will ensue. Oh and we'll carryon rehearsing. But hopefully, at the end of this four week process we will have a play.
And we'll know what the play is about and more importantly, so will you.
I hope you enjoy the performance.
