Reviewer: Doug
Location: Connecticut
Date: Sat, Sep 27, 2003 at 16:40:06 (EDT)

I am happy to report that I was able to attend a performance of Much Ado About Nothing in San Diego a couple of weeks ago.

The Old Globe is a complex of three theaters sitting cheek-by-jowl together in the center of Balboa Park, and the complex itself is adjacent to a cluster of magnificent buildings done in Spanish Colonial style. Balboa Park is a huge green expanse which sits on a hilltop in the middle of San Diego, and it is one of the most beautiful public parks in America. The Lowell Davies Festival Theater, in which Much Ado is performed, is a roofless, open air theater seating about 700 people.

The setting of the play is a huge terrace running off the back of a large mansion, with two levels, a fountain, steps into the house, steps off the terrace, and surrounded by a low wall which also has a fountain. The time is shortly after World War I. Yes, that's right, they have taken the Shakespearean text of the early 1600's and set it down in the middle of 1918 Italy. The costumes reflect the post-war era. Billy Campbell, for instance, who plays Benedick, makes a hilarious entrance from the aisle dressed in a World War I pilot's outfit, replete with leather flying jacket, leather helmet, and leather goggles, and dragging a parachute strewn with branches and twigs. Dana wears a variety of lovely long dresses of the era, and looks as beautiful as ever.

The acting is excellent. Dana's character is by turns witty, feisty, playful, sarcastic, angry, tearful, comforting, and romantic. As many of you probably know, Dana thought it would be a stretch for her to play this role, but she handles it very well. Acting is acting, and Dana is a great actress.

When asked during a post-performance forum why she had taken the role, Dana replied simply "I was asked".

Some aspects of the performance rang true to both of the romantic leads (Billy Campbell and Dana). Billy said that he noted during rehearsal how right both of them seemed for their parts, and Dana said that some of the things that Beatrice says are things that she would say in her own life.

There is a lot of fun in the play. Billy Campbell does an excruciatingly funny tour of the terrace as he tries to overhear the plans of two characters on an upstairs porch, there is the sublimely ridiculous crew of the night watch led by a character named Dogberry, and there is a certain little biplane that makes its appearance at opportune moments, accompanied by appropriate sound effects. On an aesthetic note, Dana has a lovely turn on the dance floor in concert with some other ladies during a party. She is a very good dancer, as some of you may recall from the China Beach episode, Skylark, and it was a pleasure to see her in such beautiful and graceful motion.

As with most Shakespearean comedies, Much Ado has a happy ending. Plots are revealed, falsehoods are exposed and corrected, couples get married, Beatrice and Benedick get together, and families are happy. All's Well That Ends Well. Even the cast seemed happy. "Where else," said Dana, "can you look up at the moon while you're performing?"

There is still time to enjoy the fun and spend some time with Dana. Much Ado runs through Oct 12th.