RSC Loves Labours & Much Ado

Thanks! I'll definitely be ordering that. Though I might wait till I've (hopefully) seen Much Ado in case I want to order that one too.

Has anyone tried Saturday day seating recently? I was going to day seat for Much Ado mid-week next week but I now have to start a new temp job on Monday so the only day I can do is this Saturday. I wouldn't be able to get there till just after 9 so I don't know if there is any point trying or if I would arrive to find a queue round the block.

I saw the Much Ado half of the double bill last night. To my surprise, while I enjoyed it I actually preferred Love's Labour's Lost. I don't know if this is because it was my 5th Much Ado production (6th counting the opera version!) compared to my first LLL. I found the watch scenes almost, well, unwatchable thanks to the incredibly annoying Dogberry. I find the character annoying at the best of times but this portrayl took the biscuit. I'm afraid I sat in stony-faced silence through the scene when the prisoners were interrogated while the rest of the audience seemed to find it hysterical. If I want to see someone falling over furniture I'll see the Goes Wrong shows. In fact I think I'd prefer Much Ado if Shakespeare just hadn't written the watch scenes full stop!

Fortunately apart from those scenes I liked the rest of the production (though as a costume history geek I thought some of the women's costumes were a few years too late for a piece supposed to be set in 1918-19!). As with LLL. I enjoyed the amount of music used, especially the ensemble when Claudio was doing vigil at Hero's tomb. (I tried to buy the cast recording CDs but unfortunately didn't have enough cash on my & they didn't take cards.)

It was very interesting seeing those actors who were playing very different characters to those they played in LLL, especially Sam Alexander, Stephen Pacey & John Hodgkinson (I didn't even twig who the latter was until well into the play, he looked so different).

I thought Edward Bennett & Lisa Dillon were excellent as Beatrice & Benedick. I was very relieved when they managed the "Kill Claudio" section without the audience laughing inappropriately.

I can never understand why audiences even find it funny. It's a highly emotional & tense situation. I sometimes get the feeling that audiences think that if a play is billed as a comedy they have to laugh at every single scene ireespective of what is actually happening. Yes, I probably would have hidden under my chair were it not that there's not enough room at TRH, even in the stalls! (Forked out top price for this, which I think is the first time I've paid top price in the West End since c.2012, but couldn't face TRH's balcony.)