Classical Theatre Performance Context

Introduction

After finding out I would be performing exerts from 'Much Ado About Nothing', I thought it was only best that I research the Social, Historical and Cultural backgrounds to how this successful comedy was first showcased.

'Much Ado About Nothing' is a comedic play by the English playwright William Shakespeare. 'Much Ado' first questioned people about the poems or sonnets at the time. Sonnet 116 which is read by Benedick to Beatrice (two main protagonists of this comedy), says how love isn't really love if its not loyal. This is a main theme to this play as we see a love between Hero and Claudio that looks like it may not last as it doesn't seem to be as loyal as the love Beatrice and Benedick have at the end. This is due to the fact that Hero's marriage to Claudio is an arranged one and even though they like each other they don't know each other well, whereas Benedick and Beatrice have know each other for a long time and know what makes each other annoyed and happy.

Original Staging and Performance Style

Recently I watched a modern version of 'Much Ado About Nothing'. I enjoyed this adaptation as it brought a modern comedy element to it with the wonderful facial expressions of Catherine Tate, along with slapstick comedy like the smudging of Benedicks face with paint. Even though we have these slapstick elements like a tub of paint these props and different parts of staging wouldn't of been used for the original version that was showcased at The Globe. This was due to the limited resources at that time. After watching a modern version of Much Ado About Nothing with the cast of David Tennant and Catherine Tate I noticed how many things they adapted from the first version. For example in the original version Much Ado is set in Messina which is located on the island of Italy called Sicily. The version I saw was set in Gibraltar. The original version  was set in Messina. In the original staging they would of had trapdoors. This would of been used to make special entrances. For Much Ado About Nothing, the trapdoor may have been used for when Benedick is hiding from Claudio, Lenato and Don Pedro when they talk about Beatrice loves him. I feel that they could of had Benedick come up for his line while the other character on stage could be in a freeze frame. This could also be the same for when Beatrice eavesdrops on Ursula and Hero. The trapdoor could also be used for when Don John enters to show that he is the villain in this comedy as it is as if he is coming from the underworld. The Globe was open air, as they didn't have the technology to have lights so they used natural lighting. This meant that they would have to continue to work even if the lighting wasn't right for example, if it was very sunny it would of been difficult to portray a tragedy like Macbeth. For Much Ado about Nothing, I think the actors would of wanted a sunny day for their lighting, as it would represent Messina in Italy well. With the Original staging going back to when Benedick is eavesdropping to Leonato, Don Pedro and Claudio. They would probably be pillars on the stage, and this would of been what Benedick would have hid behind in the original staging, this would of probably been the same for Beatrice. The actors on stage would of performed quite quickly to get the audience entertained so they weren't standing in the pit too long, this was one of the reasons the aside was used so much as it kept the audience involved.


The Performance style in the original would have been very melodramatic due to that naturalism wasn't popular till the late 19th century and naturalism if tried in the Elizabethan era probably wouldn't have been well received. The Actors would of said the words in a very dramatic way to convey there emotions to the audience. The Actors and the audience would interact through soliloquy's where the Actor would normally speak to the audience without any actors on stage, this is seen a lot in Hamlet. I think that through Much Ado about Nothing, there are many 'aside' stage directions. The asides could be if a character is speaking to one character if in a scene with many characters or it could be them talking to the audience.  Many asides are seen in the scene where Leonato, Claudio and Don Pedro are talking about Benedick. Claudio has many asides some our to Leonato or Don Pedro is eavesdropping Bendick and the other asides are to the audience, to explain how they are playing a trick on Benedick and do this by breaking the 4th wall. Many modern interpretations of this dramatic effect are still kept, for example in Much Ado About Nothing with Catherine Tate and David Tennant, Benedick uses the aside many times, and also breaks the 4th wall in his monologue. The Actors wouldn't go into the pit but would talk to them from the stage. This is because there costumes where expensive and it would be to risky to have them near the common people in the pit.

Original Cultural, Social and Political Themes

Cultural

Image taken from 1993's version of Much Ado About Nothing.
As shown by this contemporary version the costumes of the men
returning from war are very elegant and prestigious.

In the Elizabethan Era, Queen Elizabeth 1st was on the throne, the Queen at the time loved the arts and recognized the importance of it. She would often go to the theatre herself and enjoyed the works of playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare. The Arts were respected very highly, costumes would of taken ages to make and they would try to reuse costumes as it wouldn't take so much time and money. A company would spend £300 on costumes, that now would be at the amount of about over £35,000. The costumes would show the social status, for example the costume of a character like Don Pedro would be very elegant and look clean. The character of a witch from Macbeth may be in rags and would look dirty and swamp like, the actors would never step into the yard to interact personally to the audience as the costumes were too expensive and delicate.

In Much Ado About Nothing, we see the change in Benedick where at one point he is 'a proffessed tyrant' to the opposite sex to where he falls in love with Beatrice. We also see Claudio is falls in love with Hero straight after seeing her. I think Shakespeare was providing a vision on how society was at the time, how there would be characters like Claudio who would fall in love with the first beautiful woman they saw. I know this to be true as many of the sonnets before Sonnet 116 where about how women were beautiful and how they'd be compared to gods. I think Shakespeare went against this and showed this in Much Ado About Nothing as the couple of Benedick and Beatrice looks much more likely to last than that of Hero and Claudio. the Actors wouldn't be allowed to wear the costumes outside of the theatre as they would have been arrested for trying to impersonate someone of a higher level than them.

Social

Society in Shakespeare's time was very energetic. London's population was bigger than ever, between 1550 and 1600 the population had doubled in size. By 1650 it had once doubled again and was at the population of 400,000. This high number meant that at that time it was the largest city in the world. Because of the large population, the people of London wanted more entertainment and plays and so playwrights like Marlowe, Shakespeare and more were very popular. Entertainment at the Globe theatre was a very social thing.

The yard shown from the Actors perspective.
Where audience members would stand to watch a performance.

With costs for seeing a show being the cheap price of a penny, many would turn up. The people wouldn't of wanted to stand up for long amounts of time, so they would of wanted to be entertained otherwise they would start to chat or shift around. It was the actors job at the time to keep the audience entertained and they would do this constantly by breaking the 4th wall and addressing the audience. A lot of Shakespeares plays contained high action. For example in Much Ado About Nothing. Hero dies of a broken heart. This sort of action would of kept the audience invested in the story and would want to see how this would progress. The yard were the common people would be would be havoc. There would of been arguments, sex, eating, dancing, roaring and many other raucous things happening as there wasn't much security. The actors would have to deal with all of this and continue to try and entertain. Shakespeare himself would often perform at the globe as an actor.

He was apart of a group called The Lord Chamberlains Men. They were a company that played at the globe, Shakespeare would write the plays for them and then he would help them perform them normally as a secondary character. For Much Ado About Nothing he may have played the character of Don Pedro or Leonato. In Don John scenes the audience may boo just like you would see at a pantomime today. This would of shown if the audience were invested in the play. 

Political  

Image taken from 1993's version of Much Ado About Nothing.
The Friar who is a man of god is the Priest for this wedding.
He is given the duty to marry these people as he is of most importance
in this environment.

The Elizabethan Era was when Shakespeare was around, Queen Elizabeth 1st was on the Throne. Elizabeth and most other royalty loved entertainment and loved the theatre. They would sit above the stage. They would go to the theatre for the entertainment and to be seen. They'd also be the highest people in relevance to the stage. This would show how they were nearest to the heavens and to state how they were royalty. If an Actor had a soliloquy or a monologue like Benedick has in Much Ado About Nothing they would also have to direct it to the royalty behind them, this would of been difficult because they have people watching from every angle and they all want to be kept entertained. If a Royal liked your work they would invite you to their mansion to perform and you would have been paid and fed and maybe even have a room to sleep in for the night. In Much Ado About Nothing, the friar at the end would have been of quite high importance and respected as he was a man of god. This was shown by the script Shakespeare had written as the friar would speak in verse which was seen as a form spoken by more higher class characters, while character like Dogberry would speak in Prose. This is due to the fact that verse is spoken in a rhythmic pattern and seemed heightened and to have more of a dramatical purpose than that of Prose. The Royals who would watch the performance may levitate to the characters of someone who speaks Verse as it would of been much nearer to their political class.

Contemporary performances

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare is very contemporary, with main themes of love and betrayal that still are big in today's society. Much Ado About Nothing will continue to be in the minds of modern audiences.

Much Ado About Nothing (Nov 2005)

Taken from 2005's version of Much Ado About Nothing.
The wedding shown. The moment before Claudio disowns Hero.

I recently watched Much Ado About Nothing with Damien Lewis who was the most notable cast member. I really enjoyed this modern interpretation. It was set in an office environment that was about a news team with Claudio, Hero, Beatrice and Benedick being different hosts of different parts of the news. For example Claudio represented the Sport side of the news while Hero was the weather girl and Benedick and Beatrice where the two main anchors. I though this was a brilliant idea to have Beatrice and Benedick as the main anchors as we go to see the flirty yet sly behaviours of how Damien Lewis and Sarah Parish played these protagonists. In this adaptation directed by Brian Percival. They had the scene where Hero is meant to die of a broken heart, as her falling down and bumping her head quite badly and being taken to the hospital. I think this is due to the fact that a modern audience wouldn't believe that someone would die of a broken heart. Where that may have been more believable in Shakespeares time. What I particularly liked about this adaptation was how they changed the audience to suit a modern audience. I felt I got a better understanding of the story and I felt more emotionally attached. 

Much Ado About Nothing (2011)

Taken from 2011's version of Much Ado About Nothing.
Benedick played by David Tennant showing the slapstick element
of this comedy.

Catherine Tate and David Tennant took to the stage for this adaptation set in Gibraltar. I enjoyed this adaptation, it was very comical like Shakespeare would of wanted it performed. David Tennant gave an enjoyable performance. What I loved about this adaptation was the use of modern technology and slapstick. At one point David Tennant had paint all over him as he got into a bad turn of events when trying to eavesdrop. Elements like the paint would of not been used back then as the costumes cost too much money to have paint on. There was also a moment in this adaptation where Beatrice is on a wire and being lifted up to the sky when the other wire with the painter on is at the ground much like a balancing scale or seesaw. I loved this bit of comedy as I liked to see Beatrice get annoyed as she had been so rude to Benedick before. This wouldn't of happened when the play was first set as they didn't have the technology to make that work. I think this was a wonderful way for Beatrice to listen in to the conversation of Hero and Ursula.