Much Ado About Nothing: Regent's Park, London

long with the Proms and deckchairs in St James’s Park, the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is one London’s summer institutions. However vigorously you’ve been pressed into the armpit of a sweaty city-worker on the Jubilee Line, or how maddened you’ve been by the haltingly meandering progress of tourists along Oxford Street, the sight of the fairy lights glinting through the trees is enough to warm the heart of the most cynical Londoner. (In rare instances of failure, however, the mulled-wine that’s a staple at the theatre’s trellised and twinkling bar can generally be relied upon.) With the leafy amphitheatre providing both backdrop and set, Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing came to enchantingly bucolic life – its sunny opening act and darker middle section perfectly mirrored in the falling darkness of the evening, so that the daytime hi-jinks in trees and arbours gave way to a moonlit stillness for the procession of mourners. Philip Witcomb’s set wisely made every use of its context, with curving walkways emerging as natural extensions of the trees that framed them, creating both a sense of motion and visual fluidity. Colourfully traditional costumes, effortlessly complex choreography and atmospheric music by David Shrubsole (if occasionally rather over-sung), added to a whole that was every bit as engaging as the passions of Shakespeare’s sparring lovers.