Izzi is a Master’s student on the Shakespeare Studies MA at King’s and the Globe Theatre, having completed her undergraduate degree in Classics and English at the University of Oxford. As her MA suggests, she loves all things Shakespeare and early modern drama, and she regularly watches and reviews modern productions of Shakespeare plays. Although you wouldn’t know it from how much she loved Much Ado, Izzi’s research focuses on bodily violence on the early modern stage.
Izzi has written the below review for the most recent production of Much Ado About Nothing (2025): Jamie Lloyd Company, Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
Verdict: 5 stars
Coming off the back of his rather dark and pessimistic production of The Tempest, Jamie Lloyd’s Much Ado About Nothing couldn’t be more refreshingly different. The bleak and barren sand dunes of Prospero’s island have been swapped for a stage covered in bright pink confetti, with a massive pink heart floating at the back of the stage. Lloyd re-imagines Shakespeare’s Sicilian comedy in a world of 90s disco, glittery jumpsuits, and massive Masked Singer-cum-Disneyland headpieces to absolutely fabulous success.
While in his Tempest the casting of Sigourney Weaver as a female Prospero was somewhat disappointing, Lloyd’s choice of Hollywood A-listers in the form of Marvel’s Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell is inspired. The pair’s flirtatious repartee during the opening scenes perfectly captures the constant exchange of digs between Beatrice and Benedick, Messina’s most eligible bachelor and bachelorette. Both make perfect use of their Hollywood heartthrob status when appealing to the audience: Hiddleston delivers Benedick’s iconically self-centred line ‘I am loved of all ladies’ to rapturous applause and wolf-whistles, and the two of them seem to delight in dancing suggestively together wherever possible. The pair’s physical comedy during their respective trickery scenes is delightful, with Hiddleston’s attempts to hide himself with armfuls of pink confetti bringing the house down.
The production is high energy, high camp, and high fun-factor, motivated by a soundtrack of 90’s bangers, often sung by Mason Alexander-Park’s Margaret, accompanied by group dance numbers. That is, until a poignant switch in mood created by Claudio’s bitter condemnation of Hero at the altar for her alleged infidelity, egged on by Don John, played by Tim Steed. Steed brilliantly approaches the tricky John the Bastard plotline by showing himself consciously adopting the persona of a vaudevillian villain, complete with pantomime ‘mwah-hah-hah-hah’, in order to wreak havoc in Don Pedro’s court. His seemingly frivolous mischief, however, creates terrible consequences for Mara Huf’s Hero, whose speech in defence of her honour is powerfully resonant in a post Me Too world. This tricky scene, which can leave a bitter taste in the mouth of a modern audience when the couple reconcile, was expertly navigated: I was pleasantly surprised to find myself genuinely happy for Hero and Claudio when they reunite at the end of the play alongside the loved-up Beatrice and Benedick.
Jamie Lloyd’s Much Ado About Nothing is an absolute must-see if you’re a fan of Shakespeare, a fan of theatre, a fan of disco, a fan of Tom Hiddleston, a fan of pink… the list goes on.
By Izzi Strevens
