After a single day of auditions, the 48-hour countdown to showtime began on 5th of October for Shakespeare Society’s annual Freshers’ play.
This year’s show was “Much Ado About Nothing”, directed by Freya Leadbetter. The comedy follows the story of Benedick and Beatrice, who are tricked into falling in love despite their loathing for each other. The play’s lighthearted chaos was the perfect choice to induct the Freshers into the society.
SCENE spoke to two cast members to hear their thoughts on the experience.
What was your role?
Simon Bingham: Benedick.
Raven Meade: Friar Francis/ the sexton.
What did you enjoy the most?
SB: I enjoyed meeting a bunch of other Freshers who loved theatre. I also liked how we were able to perform with very low stakes, so we just focused on having a great time.
RM: Just coming together with people who like Shakespeare and making friends through it!
Did you find elements of it challenging?
SB: It was challenging to remember all our blocking [the staging of the actors] in time, and to try
and perfect how I wanted to perform each line, but having scripts on stage took a lot of stress away.
RM: While there were parts that were challenging, I found it more fun overall. Since we didn’t need to be off-script and were given the script a week in advance, we could focus on the performing aspect, which
made it fun and challenging but not stressful.
What were the rehearsals like?
SB: They were so much fun: a lot of goofing around.
RM: Our incredible director, Freya, had an idea of how it would look but was also open to suggestions which made the rehearsal process so much fun. Since it was done in such a short timeframe, we
were there from 11 or 12 until 5 but the time just flew by!
What interested you the most about your character?
SB: Benedick is a great character because al- though he’s normally overly dramatic and swears he’ll stay a bachelor forever, he also knows when to be serious and loyal to those he loves.
RM: I love how quick [Friar Francis] was to suggest that Hero faked her death. He had no reason to do this or any reason to care about the relationship but does it anyway and it somehow works out!