Much Ado About Nothing - The Pantaloons

It’s always fun seeing a Pantaloons show, but it’s a particular pleasure when it’s a Shakespeare play.

They performed Much Ado About Nothing at Eastbourne’s Underground Theatre on 11^th August 2015. On top of the familiar Pantaloons ingredients of music, ad libbing, and interacting with the audience, Much Ado has the added benefit of being written by Shakespeare, who has been known to write a good play or two.

The cast has such ease with the language: full of life and character; never a struggle to understand; you could hardly discern the join between the original text and the modern asides.

In a cast of just four, there was much doubling (tripling/quadrupling), and this is where the physicality of the cast’s performances came into its own. They didn’t just rely on costume or voice to distinguish one character from another: each character was immediately identifiable simply by how they held themselves and moved. The villainous Don John, Borachio’s mimes, the old man Antonio, and the choreography of the Watch showed this physicality at its best.

Other touches I enjoyed: the Loons boxes; the music, bubbles and birds when Benedick decided he was in love (and the expression on Neil Jennings’ face as Benedick at that point); the ‘post-credits’ moments at the end; the way the cast seamlessly incorporated a broken telescope prop (and trying to fix it) into a scene, without once losing the rhythm of the dialogue or direction of the action.

The Pantaloons are primarily touring Much Ado About Nothing as an outdoor production, and I’d have liked to have seen this outdoors. I can see that certain scenes would work even better out in the open air and with more space than the stage at the Underground Theatre would allow.

Having seen other Pantaloons shows both inside and outside (Pride and Prejudice most recently), it’s interesting what differences the setting makes. Outdoors in Pride and Prejudice, and probably in Much Ado too, a more serious, reflective mood seems to settle as the darkness falls. While still moving in an indoor setting, I can imagine Claudio’s heartbroken song at Hero’s ‘tomb’ is quite spine-tingling outside at nightfall.

But the Underground Theatre, as its name suggests, is underground – and there are definite benefits to being indoors. You know you won’t get rained on, for a start.

Speaking of which, (as I’m hoping it doesn’t rain), I’ll be seeing the Globe’s production of Much Ado About Nothing this weekend. It’ll be interesting to compare and contrast.


The Pantaloons are on tour with Much Ado About Nothing until 23^rd August. Full tour dates are on their website: thepantaloons.co.uk