The Michigan Daily-Friday, July 20, 1979-Page 7 What to do about 'Much By JOSHUA PECK From a half-invented lecture to beginning students: "Go through your script, weeks before your actors first read through it, and decide which scenes are going to be carried mostly by physical attention, and which by words, imagery or thought. Keep that distinction clear Much Ado About Nothing William Shakespeare Power Cener July 13, 16. 22, and Augusta4,5 Leonato ..........Jon Hallquist Beatrice. ... Janice Reid Don Pedro .................... Richard Pickren Benedick.................RhonnieWashington Don John......................LorenDale Bass Claudion ...Michael Morrissey Antonio ...............Ter. y Cana Hero .................. Terryl Wright Hallquist Dogberry ...................... Leo McNamara Verges.........................,..DavidManis Richard Burgwin, direrto; Susan Bender, lSchtin John Woodland, sets: Nancy JoSmith, cosiumes; Randy Neighbarger, musical director. harpsichordisi. from that point on, and only mix the two rarely and with caution.' The scheme hatched early in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing to bring young Beatrice and Benedick to a state of reciprocal love is obviously one of words. When Beatrice's cousin, Hero, goes out to the field with her maids to discuss Benedick's supposed affection for Beatrice, the ensuing scene, with the gossip's target surreptitiously listening on, clearly relies on the spoken fun for its comic effect." WHY, THEN, does director Richard Burgwin insist on adding distracting and wholly unnecessary stage business to the sequence? He has Hero sit down stage left, before the vomitory, a pasage under the audience, and dangle a fishing line down into the passage where Beatrice lies hidden. At one point, the fishhook drags the girl out of the vom, pulling her right up to the stage level. The flurry of activity, which Burgwin seemingly imagines to be a clever metaphor for the concurrent dialogue, only succeeds in drowning the humor in overstatement, meanwhile impeding the audience's attempts to follow the rather complicated dialogue. The fishing business is an illogical embellishment, but then, illogic pops up all evening, and at times seems verily to be the whole production's concept. Much Ado, like many of the Bard's works, has two interwoven strands of plot. In addition to the Beatrice- Benedick intrigue, there is the sudden rapture that springs up between Claudio and Hero. As in Merchant of Venice, the two plots call for substan- tially different moods and manners. How could one treat Shylock's bloodlust with the fairy tale tenderness of that plot's other half? How, indeed, can Burgwin have Claudio's first stage en- trance consist of a sprawling pratfall? He does, though, and when Claudio makes weighty accusations of his lover's alleged impurity later on, we are stunned. How can this blonde, ef- feminate clown, heretofore treated almost unremittingly as a farcical figure, believably take part in scenes of such relative gravity? He cannot. GIVEN THE BUNGLED handling of the Hero and Claudio love story, it is surprising that Beatrice's entanglement emerges as the stronger of the co-plots. Janice Reid, so hopelessly alone in trying to make the Repertory's Wed- ding Band a success, has more assistance-and assistants-here. Op- posite the dynamic Rhonnie Washington as the misognyous Benedick, Reid holds her own ad- mirably. More than Washington, she seems at ease with the Bard's difficult repartee, tossing off her banter with self-assured smoothness and abundant appeal. Washington, never an actor to back away from ostentation, has found the nore et r,.. fnrcn,, kni, Whiles h Benedick has his excesses. Washington's characterization is almost wholly appropriate and frequen- tly breeds the atmosphere of all-out merriment the part deserves. While the chance of Reid and Washington for their roles ends up looking for a good one, it also raises yet another instance of illogic on the direc- tor's part. The two actors are black-the only blacks on stage. In it- self, their race is of no consequence, as it has been a theatrical convention for years to cast without regard to race. But Burgwin seems on one hand to be following that convention-Reid's stage-uncle is a white man - and on the other to be using race as some sort of indication that the two characters are meant for each other. The problem would have been alleviated had there been but one other black on stage. THIS MUCH ADO'S chief mark of witlessness, is the contrived placement of the play in 1640, early in the baroque period. So far as I can tell, the only fun- ction of toying with the time setting was to give an excuse to plant harpsichor- dist Randy Neighbarger high on the stage's only setpiece, there to remain throughout the performance. The production begins with a song that Shakespeare placed much later in the script. (Perhaps Burgwin thought it rude to make the audience wait any longer for a taste of Neighbarger's decisively mediocre musical skills.) From then on, the harpsichordist's chief function is to play redundant ac- companiment to bits of text that could, and ought to have been to, speak for themselves. When Reid speaks her famous lines about "wooing, wedding,, and repentance," the instrument is heard punctuating each sentiment. Reid, thank you, could have managed on her own. Most appalling, though, is the earnest diminished 7th chord with which Neighbarger accompanies each en- trance of John, the villainous plotter against Hero's and Claudio's hap- Ado'? piness. The production, upon each sounding of the chord, seems to be taking yet another anachronistic leap, to the "melodrammers" of the 19th Century. Does Burgwin honestly believe that the play is so intrinsically foolish that it calls for melodramatic nonsense? If so, he ought to have chosen another one. Other difficulties, pale as they are in comparison to the conceptual tom- foolery, do show up. Michael Morrissey simpers his way through the role of Claudio, and Terryl Hallquist, who does quite nicely in her other Repertory roles, is a faceless, uninteresting Hero. The arbor in which Benedict hears of Beatrice's supposed liking for him ought to have a suggestion, at least, of lushness and greenerv. instead of being barren and lifeless: Leo McNamara's progress through the evening as the constable Bogberry is representative of the actor's lot in general. Early on, he seems almost scared to be as broad with his comic gifts as he would like to. When at last he pulls free, he is as amusing an illiterate as one could hope for. Would that more of his colleagues had been able to find the key to their director's handcuffs. RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE SUMMER PLAYERS PRESENT BERTOLT BRECHT'S PAnd is Hired Mafn A comedy for the summer Ther, Ju4l 194,~ Ju4l 21 N ;~ Ju4l 26-S4t, Ju4'r 28 E QuadAuditorium Admission $3.00 oft - - OOMM - -0 - - - - . ---Nii y FeDAV' It hbe4A A f kALJL~Iot ~~gad Q-AeImb~ Dw e0sA.xSP0oi , Beatrice (Janice Reid) and Hero (Terryl Haliquist) in Michigan Repertory's production of "Much Ado About Nothing," playing at the PowerCenter.