“Much Ado About Nothing” hasn’t been done quite like this before. Attackers blast out with Tasers; news bulletins interrupt the action with breathless headlines (“BENDICK SAFE”); and the final celebration comes with a blast of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.”But this production’s most unique selling point is its venue: London department store Selfridges. In much ado about pop-up drama, the event has the twitter hashtag #GetTheeToASelfridges.The shop prides itself in being able to sell most things needed for the perfect lifestyle, from toys to toiletries. Not for the first time, it adds theater to the mix, on this occasion as part of the year-long Shakespeare 400 celebrations.Playgoers descend to the lower ground floor and have to resist the temptations of designer everything - watches, whiskey and kitchen whisks. Tucked away next to the Ray-Ban display, helpfully next to a café (there is no bar in this small venue), the reFASHIONed Theatre venue fits its audience of some 120 people on both sides of a narrow catwalk-like stage.The Faction theatre company uses the space imaginatively, with the characters literally ending up on top of each other in the eavesdropping scenes. Still, when they hide from the others by falling to the floor, the players sometimes drop out of sight of many in the audience. One key scene takes place behind some of the onlookers. This is only to be expected in the basement room, which has also served as the store’s UltraLounge, cinema and gym .The whole thing was worked out over six weeks of open rehearsals. Inventiveness could be the production’s middle name.The play is raced through in a tightly-trimmed 90 minutes with no interval. Daniel Boyd has his moments as Benedick, even if he rattles though lines like a rapper with a train to catch. Alison O’Donnell’s Beatrice has bucketfuls of attitude and a potential to explode with rage at the wrong word. They are all actors with impressive CVs, including Caroline Langrishe as Leonata (yet again Hero’s father Leonato has had a sex change!)The interaction with video cameos allows some more famous names to join. Meera Syal is onscreen as a TV newsreader – a useful way to turbocharge the action. She is followed by a garrulous Simon Callow on the night watch shift, shot as if into a security camera. He is joined by a taciturn Rufus Hound, who for the most part pulls quizzical faces as Callow intones. The video recordings sometimes require split-second timing for the cast to respond to questions, and for the most part the actors do well, with only a few clunky overlaps or silences.At times it seems less like a serious story that mixes comedy and tragedy, and more like a fashion show. There are popping paparazzi bulbs and outfits conveniently for sale in Selfridges itself. “Much Ado About Nothing” is always a dangerous title to court ridicule: much ado about fashion? It recalls the line in “Macbeth”: a lot of sound and fury that signifies possibly nothing – apart from an amusing and largely entertaining 90 minutes that bowls by in the most unusual of locations.“Much Ado About Nothing” runs at Selfridges & Co, 400 Oxford Street, London W1A 1AB through September 24.
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