Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing underwent the ‘Love Island treatment’ in a new production from the National Youth Theatre. The tale of Claudio, Hero, Benedick and Beatrice was brought up to date by playwright Debris Stevenson, casting the drama in the superficial, image-obsessed world of reality TV. Audiences were invited to see behind the camera to see the puppets and puppeteers at work – with matchmaking, gossip and manipulation at the forefront of the drama.
There were reality TV plot devices aplenty, with soliloquies performed in the diary room, and Benedick and Beatrice’s first encounter framed as a boys vs girls ‘rap battle’. Stevenson uses the language of Shakespeare throughout, peppered with witty contemporary additions.
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