Much Ado About Nothing
Theatre Royal Drury Lane
- Opens: Monday, 10 February 2025 -
Booking until: Friday, 4 April 2025
Much Ado About Nothing description
Shakespeare’s lively battle of the sexes is a huge favourite. Now it’s back in London. This is the latest production of Much Ado About Nothing, just as entertaining as it was 500 years ago. Jamie Lloyd directs this landmark production with the respected film, TV and stage actors Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell. Hiddleston plays Benedick and Atwell his argumentative single sidekick Beatrice.
The plot: It’s complicated!
Set in the newly-peaceful Italian town of Messina, sick to death of war and glad to be back to normal, the story is about two couples who get together when a band of soldiers turns up.
Claudio and Hero fall in love but it almost ends in disaster when the villainous Don John starts making accusations. Claudio's friend Benedick and Hero's cousin Beatrice love to banter, providing a lot of the laughs. Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, Claudio is tricked into thinking Hero isn’t a virgin. The more they get tangled up in their own games, the more confusing life gets. As we say here in the 21st century, “it’s complicated”.
Written in the last years of the 1500s and published in 1623, this play has been capturing hearts and minds ever since. The skilled actors in the starring roles make it even better.
Hot stars from TV, the movies and the stage
Tom Hiddleston is back on stage following his acclaimed work in Betrayal on Broadway and in the West End. A Golden Globe, Tony, Olivier and Evening Standard Award winner, he has a rich variety of screen work behind him.
His stage work is just as impressive. Betrayal gave him his Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play, plus an Evening Standard Theatre Award nomination for Best Actor. He has appeared in Hamlet and in Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse, winning an Evening Standard Theatre Award winner for Best Actor. He’s been in Othello and, for Cymbeline, he won the Olivier for Best Newcomer.
Hayley Atwell has an equally impressive screen CV. On stage she first hit the West End in 2009 in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, directed by Lindsay Posner, with Ken Stott, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Harry Lloyd, nominated for an Olivier for her role. She has also appeared in The Faith Machine at the Royal Court, The Pride at Trafalgar Studios, Dry Powder, and Josie Rourke’s unique version of Measure for Measure. In 2019 she starred in the West End’s Rosmersholm.
Starring
Hayley Atwell, Tom Hiddleston
