The grounds of Braboeuf Manor offer a beautiful tranquil setting for Shakespeare classic play Much Ado About Nothing. There’s plenty of parking and seating around the staged area, which allows a great view of the stage wherever you are sitting.

Nobody in the cast is wearing a microphone, and everyone projects perfectly into the audience. For this performance, I sat in the front row. However, for the first one, I sat towards the back and never missed a word of the play.

Much Ado About Nothing lives up to its title. We followed the romance between two couples in Messina after they all returned from war. There’s Benedict (James Sheldon) and Beatrice (Phoebe Pryce), who are resistant of getting together and at times can be incredibly nasty to one another. Then there’s the younger couple Hero (Joëlle Brabban) and Claudio (Craig Benedict Lobo).

Claudia is tricked into believing that Hero has taken with another man on the eve of their wedding and behaves appallingly at the altar, causing Hero to collapse and appear to have died.

The storyline follows the path of these wrongs being corrected and the couples united at the end. There’s no spoiler alerts with Shakespeare’s plays. It’s all about the casting and production.

The sound effects of the car pulling up at the guest house/ bar and the war planes going overhead are extremely realistic. Sound designer Mark Eaton has captured the historical era, so realistically, I must admit I did look in the sky the first time one of these planes would have been going overhead.

This particular play is set in the gardens of Messina watching the outside production, which added to the enjoyment of this performance.

Although both plays can be watched independently, director Tom Littler has linked the two plays to follow on from one another. Much Ado About Nothing will need to be watched second if you are to follow the sequence of events between the characters.

This particular production of Much Ado About Nothing is one of the best adaptations that I have seen. It’s well worth catching before the plays end on July 25th, 2026.

For more information about Much Ado About Nothing and future productions by Guildford Shakespeare Company, please use the link below.

Five Stars.

Photo credit Harry Elletson

Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Tom Littler
Designed by Neil Irish
Original Music by Matthew Floyd Jones
Movement Director & Choreographer Asha Jennings-Grant
Sound by Matt Eaton.

https://www.guildford-shakespeare-company.co.uk/