Gray’s Inn is a beautiful quiet location just a few minutes from Chancery Lane station and as the sun sets over the square and you enter Gray’s Inn Hall, you will find yourself transported to Southern France where a bar is waiting for you with drinks and snacks, and you will be invited to take your seat around the traverse stage for Antic Disposition’s latest production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing.
Directors Ben Horslen and John Riseboro set the stage in 1945 as troops are returning home and stopping by the little town of Messina, where the soldier Claudio falls in love with the local Governor’s daughter Hero and Beatrice and Benedick, after having sworn off love, seem more and more drawn to each other as the days progress. Indeed, their friends will engineer situations and fake conversations to bring the two closer together and make them fall in love. The play is one of Shakespeare’s witty, light and very summery plays and the result is a warm and enjoyable production.
The set design by John Riseboro and the lighting by Lizzy Gunby are lovely, submerging the space with warmth, romantic colours and a dreamy sense.
