A breeze of the Elizabethan era gripped the British ambassador’s residence in Harare last Thursday night when a diversified cast took to the stage with one of William Shakespeare’s satiric plays Much Ado About Nothing.
By Kennedy Nyavaya
The play, which was showcased for three days till yesterday, marked 400 years of celebrations since the death of the revered playwright whose successful career has transcended generations.
Speaking to The Standard Style on the sidelines of the play, British Ambassador to Zimbabwe Catriona Laing expressed her contentment with the execution by the cast.
“I am so thrilled, this project by the joint Zimbabwe and British cast with quite amazing, one would never have guessed, but everyone gave me good feedback so this is Shakespeare at its best,” said Laing.
Liang also added that the positive feedback she was getting confirmed that her efforts in building up the play had paid off.
“The reason I knew it would always work in Zimbabwe and it would not in lots of other countries is because [the country] shows admiration of the English language and people here really do appreciate Shakespeare’s work,” she said.
“We have made him accessible and some were saying they get and really understand his work now so I think we have had a big breakthrough on that.”
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True to her sentiments, a large part of the audience bared visible signs of joviality as they gazed at the temporarily erected double story set which was exceptionally designed in sync with the era portrayed.
The director of the three-hour long play drawn from an exact script, Adrian Ellis, lauded local talent for displaying competent flair and for blending in well in the depiction of the classic English work of art.
“I saw wonderful local talent here in Zimbabwe. We have more Zimbabweans than we have United Kingdom embassy people in the cast,” he said.
“We had a great turn-out at the auditions and I have been blown away by the talent on show here.”
While the actual play’s setting and English are now ancient artifacts, the mixture of local and foreign artistes struck the right chords among the audience, who seemingly could easily relate.
In similar style, the lasting legacy of the legendary writer who penned some of the famous plays including Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth among many others, has astoundingly stood the test of time.
