Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more. A wet and wild production of Much Ado About Nothing has rolled into town to take you for a ride. Without a shirt on its back or an ounce of pretension in its other dressings, this wantonly accessible production throws the audience right into the thick of it.
Shakespeare’s most obnoxious lovers are back on their bull. Beatrice (Bobby Hughes) and Benedick (Zak Rosen) are capricious, ridiculous, captivating rivals locked in pursuit of the audiences’ laughter with hearts bound to fall no matter how much they kick and scream on the way down.
This high octane production, rehearsed and performed in only a handful of hours, is relentlessly energetic and powered exclusively by the forceful charisma of its cast. Without a set, costumes, or props (beyond what is respectfully purloined from audiences’ laps by its magpie cast), the actors take centre stage.
The gender bending of certain core characters particularly entrances, with a winsome and unwieldy Claudio played not just for laughs by the lively Lottie Bell opposite an unusually but not unpleasantly lascivious Hero (Shayna Beaudière). The elegant and intelligent Paige Hann also particularly impresses in her brief appearance as Friar Francis, delivering a monologue often relegated to soundtracking the montage action of plot progression, with a forceful immediacy made all the more potent by the unapologetic femininity of her presentation in the traditionally male role.
There’s a lot to unpack in this play and Shakespeare Unstaged lays it all on the line. .
Reviewer: Kira Daniels
Reviewed: 13th February 2026
North West End UK Rating: