Much Ado About Nothing
by William Shakespeare · adapted by Maira Vandiver
Far Between Theatre · Arches Lane Theatre • 2026
Far Between Theatre · Arches Lane Theatre • 2026
Shakespeare’s comedy reimagined in a 1920s New York speakeasy, where live music, queer desire and the relationship between actor and audience bring Messina’s world of wit, performance and deception to life.
The ProductionFor Much Ado About Nothing, we transformed Messina into a 1920s New York speakeasy: a world emerging from war and hungry for music, pleasure and reinvention.
The setting gave us a way into the contradictions at the heart of the play — a society negotiating changing ideas of gender and freedom while still carrying deeply entrenched expectations about love, honour and marriage. I wanted the production to feel as though the audience had walked into Messina rather than simply arrived to watch it. Music, direct address and the architecture of Arches Lane allowed us to build a world where the boundary between performers and audience could remain deliberately porous. |
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Actor + Audience + Space
Making Messina together.
My approach to Shakespeare begins with the relationship between actor, audience and architecture. Much Ado is full of people performing for one another — flirting, deceiving, eavesdropping, hiding and constantly trying to control how they are perceived.
Rather than asking the actors to play through an invisible fourth wall, we allowed the audience into that game. They could become confidants, witnesses and co-conspirators, particularly as Beatrice and Benedick tried to make sense of what was happening around them.
Arches Lane became part of that relationship. Its subterranean architecture naturally supported the speakeasy world, allowing the production to feel like something the audience had entered rather than something constructed separately from them.
Rather than asking the actors to play through an invisible fourth wall, we allowed the audience into that game. They could become confidants, witnesses and co-conspirators, particularly as Beatrice and Benedick tried to make sense of what was happening around them.
Arches Lane became part of that relationship. Its subterranean architecture naturally supported the speakeasy world, allowing the production to feel like something the audience had entered rather than something constructed separately from them.
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Finding the RhythmMusic wasn't simply decoration for the 1920s setting; it became part of the rhythm of the production itself.
Live music allowed scenes to spill into one another, supported the social world of the speakeasy and gave the ensemble another way of communicating with the audience. Shakespeare's language is already intensely musical, and the jazz world gave us permission to lean into rhythm, interruption and improvisation. That sense of musicality also fed into the comedy: listening, timing and knowing when to let a moment land became as important as the joke itself. |
Comedy with ConsequencesWhat interests me about Much Ado is how quickly its world can turn. The same society that delights in gossip, performance and deception can suddenly use those things as weapons.
I wanted to protect the pleasure and ridiculousness of the comedy without allowing it to erase what happens to Hero. That meant finding a genuine shift in the production's rhythm when the game stopped being harmless, while allowing comedy and joy to return without pretending nothing had happened. Beatrice and Benedick sit beautifully inside that contradiction: two people who are extraordinarily good at performing indifference until circumstances force them to say what they actually mean. |
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Queering Messina
The production also gave us space to explore the queerness already possible within Shakespeare's world. Rather than treating gender and desire as fixed, we were interested in the freedoms — and contradictions — of a society beginning to renegotiate both.
The speakeasy became a place where characters could experiment with who they were allowed to be, while the world outside it continued to exert very different expectations.
The speakeasy became a place where characters could experiment with who they were allowed to be, while the world outside it continued to exert very different expectations.
Building Messina
The world of the production was built collaboratively across performance, music, movement, voice, design and light, with each element helping transform Arches Lane into our Messina.
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Cast
Beatrice: Maira Vandiver Benedick: Brendan Peloubet, Hero: Jaelon Love Claudio: Finn Harkin Leonata: Oihane Rodríguez Margaret: Eva Voss Don Pedro: Ian Chapman Black Don John: Medi Persis Borachia: Song Marshall Conrade: Noel Prasad Dogberry: Oliver Lyndon Verges: Jack Tivey Balthasar: Catty Tucker Oatcake: Molly Wolff Seacole: Audrey Parry |
Creative
Director: Kay Brattan Adaptation: Maira Vandiver Produced by: Far Between Theatre Set Design: Carl Maslowski Costume Design: Saffron Booker + Marianne Vandiver Lighting Design: Ciara Moss Music Composer: Catty Tucker Vocal Coach: Zoe Zimin-Ho Movement Coach: Maya Adams Stage Manager: Harri Compton Photos by Pacifica Zhang |
Press
★★★★★
“Each of the vibrant fifteen, skilfully directed by Kay Brattan, brings something distinctive.”
Everything Theatre
“Each of the vibrant fifteen, skilfully directed by Kay Brattan, brings something distinctive.”
Everything Theatre
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★★★½
“Kay Brattan’s conscientious direction balances the play’s emotional extremes.” The Reviews Hub |
