AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.

MUCH ADO IN MESSINA.(Theater Review)

The New Yorker

| July 26, 2004 | Als, Hilton | COPYRIGHT 2004 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)Copyright

The idiosyncratic, perpetually boyish, and unequivocally American actor Sam Waterston is giving the performance of his career as the alternately loving, baffled, and furious patriarch Leonato in Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" (at the Delacorte Theatre, in Central Park). The governor of Messina, on the island of Sicily, Leonato is also the father of Hero (played by Waterston's own daughter, the lovely Elisabeth Waterston) and the guardian of Beatrice, his niece (Kristen Johnston). At first, Leonato is the most genial father figure imaginable. He's as impressed and unthreatened by Beatrice, with her verbal dexterity and her disdain for the less fair sex, as he is by his more magnanimous daughter, who has the ability to calm her cousin's blustery nature. More often than not, Leonato is amused by the way Hero plays the femme to Beatrice's butch.

But when, in Act IV, his faith in his daughter is shaken--Hero's intended, Claudio (Lorenzo Pisoni), accuses her of infidelity just moments before they're to be married--Leonato's love turns to cold gray ash. Waterston skillfully lets us see the embers burning beneath. Looking directly at Hero, who is dressed in virginal confectionary white, Leonato sees nothing but black. "But mine, and mine I loved, and mine I praised," he gasps, barely pausing for breath. "And mine that I was proud on; mine so much / That I myself was to myself not mine, / Valuing of her--why she, O she is fallen / Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea / Hath drops too few to wash her clean again, / And salt too little which may season give / To her foul, tainted flesh." It's a nightmarish moment, and it is almost unbearable to watch this Lear-like wrath fall on its passive, defenseless victim (Hero has fainted before the speech begins). But Waterston also lends pathos to Leonato's disgust--one's heart breaks as he flings invective--transforming Shakespeare's rage into an aria about the shattering of a dream. Leonato's dream, as Waterston presents it, was twofold. For him, Hero's wedding was a guarantee of a happy future for his daughter, one in which she would be loved and protected. It was proof, too, that he had succeeded as a father, that his daughter had matured into a caring, ethical being. Now that her double nature has been exposed--wrongly, of course--how can Leonato keep his grip on everything he once held dear? Ink runs through one's fingers, as does salt water.

Part of what makes Waterston's performance so arresting is his history as an actor in "Much Ado," one of Shakespeare's more emotionally challenging comedies. Thirty-two years ago, Waterston played Benedick, opposite the astonishing Kathleen Widdoes as Beatrice, in A. J. Antoon's celebrated staging, also at the Delacorte. (The production was filmed and is now available on DVD, as part of the invaluable Broadway Theatre Archives series.) As Benedick, Claudio's friend and fellow war hero, Waterston was as thin and lyrical as a river reed: his beauty lay in the delicacy of his projection and in his disarming awkwardness. He seemed to want to do anything but fight with Beatrice, which was an odd and refreshing interpretation of the role, given that Benedick and Beatrice's verbal sparring makes up the comic center of the play. In the current production, Waterston has not lost any of that charming hesitancy--he is a great listener when other actors take the stage--but one can see, too, how the gravitas that comes with time and experience has made him more than charming, has turned up the volume on his soul.

Here, Benedick, as played by Jimmy Smits, is all bluster and testosterone--a baby with chest hair. Smits's unabashed desire to be liked--to be loved by anyone but Beatrice, at first--wins the audience over. His formidable comedic skills could, however, have been tempered a little by the director, David Esbjornson, who treats the play as a kind of Restoration farce--transplanting it to the late nineteenth century and thus sacrificing or blurring some of Shakespeare's intricacy in favor of easy laughs and aural ...

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, journals, and more
Leonato set for winning return.
Newspaper article from: Birmingham Evening Mail (England) June 2, 1998 700+ words
LEONATO, unlucky to be caught in the middle of...behind Silence In Court and Turnpole. Leonato's problems, like that of so many other...going on. But despite those problems, Leonato was able to run on in the final furlong...
Dig in for Leonato to land Derby win.
Newspaper article from: Birmingham Evening Mail (England) June 26, 1998 700+ words
...Northumberland Plate - the Pitman's Derby _ at Newcastle tomorrow with Leonato. The trainer who has his stables overlooking Welshpool, has always had a high regard for Leonato and there has been nothing wrong with his form this season. He has...
Evans can kick habit with Leonato's help.
Newspaper article from: The Birmingham Post (England) June 27, 1998 700+ words
...David Evans' team has hardly been in a rich seam of form, but Leonato represents terrific value in the race of the day at Gosforth...turn melee while travelling well. Despite the inconvenience, Leonato ran on to follow home Silence In Court and Turnpole. A victory...
Full marks for first rate revival; REVIEW: Beatrice and Benedict, Berlioz New...
Newspaper article from: Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales) October 9, 2001 700+ words
Byline: MIKE SMITH Beatrice and Benedict, Berlioz New...THIS delightful production of Beatrice and Benedict scores full marks...Murray sang a rich and secure Beatrice, here paired with Paul Nilon...Don Pedro with Ralph Mason as Leonato. Yet again the loudest cheers...
A muddled 'Much Ado'; Verbal jousts are the show's saving grace.(LIFE - ARTS...
Newspaper article from: The Washington Times June 2, 2004 700+ words
...the blushing young daughter of Leonato, the governor of Messina. Because...running battle of wits between Beatrice, Leonato's feisty and happily single niece...and a favorite of the prince. Beatrice and Benedick get most of the good...
Much Ado About Nothing: Act II, Scene I
Reference information from: The Complete Works of Shakespeare Shakespeare, William January 1, 1994 700+ words
...Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, HERO, BEATRICE, and others.} LEONATO: Was not Count John here at...till he sink into his grave. LEONATO: Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly. BEATRICE: I have a good eye, uncle...
Much Ado About Nothing: Act IV, Scene I
Reference information from: The Complete Works of Shakespeare Shakespeare, William January 1, 1994 700+ words
...PEDRO, DON JOHN, LEONATO, FRIAR FRANCIS...BENEDICK, HERO, BEATRICE, and Attendants.} LEONATO: Come, Friar Francis...more be gracious. LEONATO: Hath no man's...HERO swoons.] BEATRICE: Why, how now...
Much Ado About Nothing: Act I, Scene I
Reference information from: The Complete Works of Shakespeare Shakespeare, William January 1, 1994 700+ words
...Enter LEONATO, HERO, and BEATRICE, with a Messenger.} LEONATO: I learn in this letter that Don...will hold friends with you, lady. BEATRICE: Do, good friend. LEONATO: You will never run mad, niece...
For more facts and information, see all results
©2009 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
About us | FAQs | Contact us | Privacy policy | Terms and conditions
Other Gale sites: Encyclopedia.com | HighBeam Research | Acquire Content | Books & Authors | Goliath | MovieRetriever | Smart QandA