Much Ado About Nothing. By William Shakespeare. Directed by Duncan Driver and Lexi Sekuless. Shakespeare by the Lakes. Gates will open at 5.30pm. Performances begin at 6.30pm. Tuggeranong Town Park on February 14 and 15, Glebe Park in Civic on February 16, QEII Park in Queanbeyan on February 17. Free tickets can be reserved at: Tuggeranong Town Park, Glebe Park in Civic, QEII Park in Queanbeyan.
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One of William Shakespeare's best-loved comedies is being presented outdoors as the first production of a new Canberra theatre company - and admission is free.
Shakespeare By The Lakes is performing Much Ado About Nothing in three locations over four nights as an open-air production in February. Duncan Driver, who is co-directing the play with Lexi Sekuless, says the idea was for it to be the ACT equivalent of the longrunning free Shakespeare in the Park festival in New York City. There will be food and drink for sale and live music before the show and people are encouraged to bring blankets (chairs will be allowed only in certain designated areas).
"It seemed like a lovely idea to have it by the local bodies of water," he says.
Although the company was too late to apply for any government funding this year they were able to arrange some sponsorships and partnerships and raised $7000 dollars from Pozible crowdfunding. They hope to make Shakespeare by the Lakes an annual event.
As for the choice of Much Ado About Nothing to kick off the company, Driver says there were a few reasons for the choice. It was a well-known piece and a comedy,well suited for a summer night's entertainment, he says, something audiences would like to see.
But that wasn't all.
"We knew we could do it well," he says. They had considered performing Romeo and Juliet, a popular tragedy, but Driver says it's a much harder play to pull off, since so much of it rests on the performances of the two young leads who can be difficult to cast.
Much Ado About Nothing is, Driver says, the "archetypal screwball comedy" with himself and Sekuless playing Benedick and Beatrice, the man and woman everyone knows are made for each other - except them. Although the two characters engage in a constant battle of wits and insults, their friends conspire to bring them together. Meanwhile, there's another romance going on between Claudio (Izaac Beach) and Hero (Jo (Richards) that faces its own challenges because of the machinations of the treacherous Don John (Helen McFarlane), bastard brother of Don Pedro (Rob De Fries). Will the bumbling constable in charge of the watch, Dogberry (also McFarlane), and his underlings be able to help put things right?
Driver says Much Ado is still a very funny and accessible piece and he and Sekuless have given it an updated Australian setting but "not in a very specific time or place ... I tend to be wary of productions of Shakespeare or opera that are set in too specific a time and place, like, say, a La Traviata set in Chicago in the Prohibition era."
He thinks often directors are trying to be different for the sake of it and the setting and look can take over whereas for him, in Shakespeare, "the emphasis should be on the acting and the words".
Although they toyed with the idea of having someone else direct, he and Sekuless found their ideas and approach were in sufficient accord that it wasn't necessary.
Taimus Werner-Gibbings is in the cast in the small part of Friar Francis - "The directors tell me it's very important," he says, tongue firmly in cheek.
"It's extremely commensurate with my ability."
His more crucial role in the production is a backstage one, as executive producer: "I worry about the money."
In fact, Werner-Gibbings has quite a bit of acting experience, starting as a child - he played Gavroche in two 1990s Philo productions of Les Miserables - though not so much lately and before this, none with Shakespeare.
He says that Shakespeare by the Lakes all began with him.
"It was my idea in the first place," he says.
"I was inspired by Shakespeare in the Park."
Last year, Werner-Gibbings took the notion to Driver, with whom he had done a couple of Everyman Theatre shows and things were set in motion. He says they've raised about $28,000 in sponsorship and crowdfunding and received free rehearsal space from Communities At Work and discounted equipment hire from EAVS.
"We've had a lot of help."
Now, they're preparing to bring Much Ado About Nothing to life outdoors, both for people who've been longtime lovers of Shakespeare and those who've never experienced
