Costumes Effective

The costumes deserve mention. They were easy to look at and easy to wear. Colours were chosen to point mood and character, and to blend in pleasing ways as the action re-combined the groupings. I liked especially, Claudio, Don Pedro, Benedick, and Dogberry. I was not very happy about the design for Beatrice, and was positively pained by Ursula's yellow.

And the acting? I could hear every word, and no-one shouted. It isn't always so in amateur drama. Not all the players were in full control of their intricate Elizabethan prose; those who had sentimental or rhetorical blank verse were luckier. (The wedding scene was lifted suddenly into power by the support the lines gave to Leonato. Claudio, the Friar). Hero was sometimes hard to follow, as site marred a clear and attractive voice with some strange un-English intonations.