THERE’S A CHANCE to see one of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedies in Hemel Hempstead this month.
That’s when Hemel Hempstead Theatre Company presents MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING at The Boxmoor Playhouse.
There’s romance, high drama and comedy taking place after a band of army officers and men come home for some R & R at the end of a successful military campaign. Shakespeare doesn’t tell us the name of the war and, although the play was originally set in Italy, it’s very easy to time-switch it to round about 1919, with the soldiers coming back from serving in World War One, probably in France.
That’s what HHTC has decided to do, interweaving the action with contemporary music, both well-known soldiers’ songs and even a bit of jazz.
The scene is set in summer, in the grounds of an English country house and most of the soldiers seem happily unscathed by their experiences. But one does not; and the combination of wartime injury and trauma, combined with family resentment, leads him to hatch a particularly mean plot to upset the happiness of others.
Unfortunately, this is only discovered accidentally by a band of hopeful but hopeless amateur policemen; and tension builds as they try (mostly unsuccessfully) to bring the news to the proper authorities.
Come and see if they succeed! There are performances at 7.45 pm from Wednesday, September 18 to Saturday, September 21 and there is also a Saturday matinee at 2.30 pm. It’s very easy to book through the HHTC website, with a small booking fee.
HHTC is using a small thrust stage as well as the main stage, so, if you fancy a really intimate stage experience, there are a few seats on either side which will get you very close to the actors!
