“It’s not just a production of Much Ado, it’s our production of Much Ado.” This was the sentiment of Georgia Vyvyan, who plays Beatrice, but it seemed to be a more general feeling from the cast. There is a lot of hard work and passion in this production which has left a greater feeling of ownership from that cast than most Cambridge productions.

"There is the eternal problem of making a Shakespearian production actually funny to a modern audience without cheapening it."

When I walked into the rehearsal room it was the end of a long day, and everyone was getting their notes. From people’s expressions, I could tell that they were a bit exhausted from the day, but there was still a lot of passion and focus being given to just getting notes. This was indicative of a wider dedication to the production.

The Marlowe society’s Art’s Show is a long slog for a lot of Cambridge actors. It involves weeks of working essentially professional hours, with a professional director. “There is a lot more responsibility placed on you, and the decisions you make about your character”, said Harry Redding, who portrays Benedick. Yet, the actors in this production have accepted and risen to challenge. Director Richard Beecham commented that there had been a “good fusion” of professional and amateur theatre.

Beecham, who was last in Cambridge in his touring production of 84 Charing Cross, is well adept to directing young and training actors. “It brought back a lot of memories,” he said about coming back to a university theatre environment. He went to Oxford from 1992-95, when he was involved with the theatre scene so he is not unfamiliar. But he also directs a lot of training actors at LAMDA, RADA and other drama schools

Even with the help of a professional director, Much Ado About Nothing is still a difficult production. The plot has many different streams which can be difficult to follow, it is a comedy but has a lot of darker elements which make it hard to balance and there is the eternal problem of making a Shakespearian production actually funny to a modern audience without cheapening it. Beecham commented, “this is a very challenging play. Finding the lightness and levity and ease with the language, whilst being effortlessly funny and sliding into feelings of vulnerability, hurt, rage and grief is enormously challenging.”

"The way this production has treated the text seems to offer a lot of freshness in their interpretation."

“I think for all actors, especially young untrained or training actors, Shakespeare is very hard and comedy in Shakespeare is very difficult,” admits Beecham. He was a little apprehensive about the difficulty of the task with student actors, but soon found his worries calmed when doing auditions, “I landed on a couple actresses who had really great comic timing, had done some stand-up and had a physically very strong image. I felt much safer.”

A lot of work has gone into making this production genuinely funny and accessible. Vyvyan acknowledges that Shakespeare can be a little hard for audiences at times, especially when it is comedy, “ I know I’ve found myself in Shakespeare laughing at a bit because I know it’s where I’m meant to laugh rather than it actually having tickled me.”

However, the way this production has treated the text seems to offer a lot of freshness in their interpretation. Vyvyan quoted something Beecham has said at their first read through, that they should, “treat the text with dignity but not with reverence.” This seems to have opened up the cast to playing around more. This includes one actor coming on stage on a scooter, but also allowed them to do some writing. Amaya Holman (Verges) told me that she was allowed to write a small section for the beginning of one of the Watch scenes, allowing there to a bit more life injected into the scene, as well as adding an extra level of investment from the cast.

The play is both contemporary and not, and ended up sounding a little ethereal to me. The set is a large white box, and there are minimal props and set. One example given to me of how this works was through an apple. To change to the orchard an apple would be lowered into the stage and it would simply be picked by Benedick and suddenly they are now in an orchard. There is something magical in that.

The minimal space also allows the actors to be more engrossing, as Redding said it allowed the actors to “fill the space” with their characters. This is clear in the interpretation of the Watch. Instead of a standard interpretation of them as all male in military dress, this production has gone in a completely different direction. They are a ‘nerdy’ neighbourhood-watch, “train spotters and bird watchers, that sort of thing,” said Beecham. This is an extremely original take on what is often a played out part of this play.

This Marlowe Arts Show is no different from ones of the past in the sense that it has a high level of work, passion, and excellence in performance. Yet the interpretation of this difficult play offers something quite original to the audience and is likely worth the ticket price.