Exploring Act 4 Scene 1 | Much Ado about Nothing: in performance | Royal Shakespeare Company
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 พ.ค. 2016
- Michelle Terry and Edward Bennett, who play Beatrice and Benedick in the 2014 RSC production of Much Ado about Nothing, explore the events of Act 4 Scene 1 in this film from the RSC online course Much Ado about Nothing: in Performance.
We, my friend and I are reading all Shakespeare's plays, and we just finished reading Much ado. And watching the videos you've uploaded here opens up like scenes behind the scenes... it's so enlightening. Thank you so much; I'm learning so much, listening to your ideas about the play...
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This was really interesting. Thanks for uploading!
3:30 I'm not so sure the characters are in fact tricked into loving each other. Right at the start of the play, when they first meet and squabble, she ends with
"You always end with a jade's trick: I know you of old."
Later we find they have previously had a love affair that ended because he was false.
DON PEDRO
Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of Signior Benedick.
BEATRICE:
Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile; and I gave
him use for it, a double heart for his single one:
marry, once before he won it of me with false dice,
therefore your grace may well say I have lost it.
DON PEDRO
You have put him down, lady, you have put him down.
BEATRICE
So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I
should prove the mother of fools. I have brought
Count Claudio, whom you sent me to seek.
So this is a couple that have previously been together and broken up, Beatrice being very much the wounded party. There was clearly love between them because when Beatrice does inside Benedick, at the masquerade ball, he takes such insults far more than he would another person. It hurts him, gets under his skin. Their banter at the start is a form of fencing and playfulness.
It should be noted that while this play wasn't the first, it absolutely fermented the idea of romantic comedy where the two protagonist first appear to deeply dislike each other only for them to realise that they are being their own worst enemies and are indeed meant to be together. Witness such couples in films like When Harry met Sally, Raiders of the Lost Ark, What's Up Doc... actually... it's 99% of them :-D
This is much more about nuance even though there is plenty of emotion. It is more about the moments of silence and reactions to what the other actors are doing and saying. This is missed when solely reading the play rather than performing the play. I recommend studying Shakespeare, particularly this play, with movements while speaking the roles.