Much Ado About Nothing - Programme, 1965
Title
Much Ado About Nothing - Programme, 1965
Date
29 March 1965
Description
Full programme for National Theatre production of Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare.
What's the story?
The Theatre Royal Nottingham has a firm and long-established relationship with the National Theatre.
More recent NT productions that have visited the venue include War Horse in the Royal Concert Hall in 2018 and Macbeth in 2019.
What is particularly extraordinary of this 1965 production of Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, is the cast list that reads as a veritable who's who of post-war British actors and national treasures, namely Albert Finney, Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen, Robert Stephens, Edward Petherbridge, Michael Byrne, Michael York and Ronald Pickup to name but a few.
Maggie Smith was also in this production, but as can be seen from the insert that was placed inside the programme, Maggie Smith was unable to appear in the show owing to an indisposition. The role of Beatrice was played by Pauline Taylor.
"A nattily uniformed town band parades the streets blaring forth crudely harmonised marches: the troops swagger back from the war in dress swords and plumed pill-box hats and are mobbed by a welcoming crowd of frock-coated civilians. And as for civic statuary, Zeffirelli has provided it in the shape of self-assembling monuments - ethereal girls who drift on and freeze into Ondines at the base of a fountain, and an unearthly warrior who clambers on to a pedestal and takes up martial stance as a local hero covered in bird droppings." The Times, 17 February 1965
More recent NT productions that have visited the venue include War Horse in the Royal Concert Hall in 2018 and Macbeth in 2019.
What is particularly extraordinary of this 1965 production of Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, is the cast list that reads as a veritable who's who of post-war British actors and national treasures, namely Albert Finney, Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen, Robert Stephens, Edward Petherbridge, Michael Byrne, Michael York and Ronald Pickup to name but a few.
Maggie Smith was also in this production, but as can be seen from the insert that was placed inside the programme, Maggie Smith was unable to appear in the show owing to an indisposition. The role of Beatrice was played by Pauline Taylor.
"A nattily uniformed town band parades the streets blaring forth crudely harmonised marches: the troops swagger back from the war in dress swords and plumed pill-box hats and are mobbed by a welcoming crowd of frock-coated civilians. And as for civic statuary, Zeffirelli has provided it in the shape of self-assembling monuments - ethereal girls who drift on and freeze into Ondines at the base of a fountain, and an unearthly warrior who clambers on to a pedestal and takes up martial stance as a local hero covered in bird droppings." The Times, 17 February 1965
Type
Programme
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Contributor
Researcher: David Longford
