Harrogate International Festival: Oddsocks' open air triumph
Much Ado About Nothing , Oddsocks Productions, RHS Garden Harlow Carr, Harrogate.
MUCH Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare's celebration of love, intrigue and smouldering desires, performed by Oddsocks Theatre Company, started well before everyone had claimed their spot amongst the sloping borders of Harlow Carr Gardens.
A troupe of minstrels was entertaining a large family audience, while some sold programmes and others told jokes.
This small cast of six talented actors were the providers of our evening's entertainment. In addition to this they made scenery changes and provided musical interludes.
The cast worked hard to do all the jobs that 20 or 30 would do in a conventional theatre.
However the performance was far from conventional. From the start the cast had the audience laughing and joining in. This was a madcap and hilarious romp through one of Shakespeare's much loved plays. The cast were witty and engaged the audience with their seemingly "off the cuff banter" and made the play totally accessible to all watching.
The play is the story of young lovers; Hero played by an accomplished Charlie Wren and the handsome Claudio, expertly played by David McClelland, are to be married in one week.
To pass the time, they conspire with Don Pedro played by Paul Mundell to set a 'lover's trap' for Benedick, acted by Phil Yarrow, an arrogant confirmed bachelor, and Beatrice performed by Kaitlin Howard, his favourite sparring partner.
The performance of Yarrow and Howard arguing and exchanging insults was only one of the many highlights of this unique production.
Meanwhile, the evil Don John, again ably played by Paul Mundell, with cunning yet subtle changes to his costume, conspires to break up the wedding by accusing Hero of infidelity.
The part of Leonato the governor was covered by Jack Merivale who also kept the music going through scene changes and provided a comic musical sound track to some of the more comic moments.
In the end, though, it all turns out to be 'much ado about nothing'.
All six actors were highly skilled in the art of delivering classical pieces in a contemporary way with topical asides and an amazing ability to improvise in response to anything the audience did.
This was never more evident when they picked on a family of late comers who arrived minutes after the start, they were quick with the repartee and quickly rewound to the start of the play and gave this embarrassed family a quick rsum in order to catch them up. This was excellent entertainment.
This was a fantastic night out and with the weather staying fine for this open-air performance this was a treat and must count as one of the jewels in the Harrogate Festival programme.
If Oddsocks ever return to this area it would be more than a Shakespearean tragedy if you miss them.
Mark Edwards
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Weather for Harrogate
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
