"Some things never change. MC Benny always dissin' me." That's certainly one way to describe Benedick and Beatrice's relationship in Much Ado About Nothing. And the Q Brothers - JQ and GQ - have more where that came from. This so-called "ad-rap-tation" of Shakespeare ("the original rapper," of course) by the writer/director team behind the 2002 hit The Bomb-itty of Errors, turns the tale of love and misunderstanding into a rambunctious and propulsive hip-hop floorshow. The repetitive beats don't leave much space for drama, but the crisp storytelling, wit and endearing performances make adequate amends.
It's done and dusted in 75 minutes, as the cast of six flits between characters and daft costumes against a UV-painted cityscape backcloth. The performers holler out their quickfire lyrics to an unforgiving tempo supplied by the on-stage DJ, Adrienne Sanchez. Sometimes the play feels imprisoned behind the repetitive beats, and Shakespeare fans may be frustrated as the play's most high-stakes moments ("Kill Claudio", say) get lost in music. Or lost in light-heartedness: when Hero faints to hear Claudio's wedding-day accusation, actress Stephanie Kim engages in an elaborate comedy swoon, half-horror, half solicitude for her veil.
The flipside of this is that the comic set-pieces often come alive. Hero and Claudio's first kiss is bathed in pink lights and awkwardness, as he tries to conceal his erection and she waffles about her guppy fish. Dogberry is reinvented as Dangleberry, the detective-cum-pimp with an entourage of extremely camp cops. And Beatrice and Benedick's courtship would be recognised in any playground: "Beatrice loves me? I can't really blame her," preens JQ's cocksure Benedick. "After all, it's me - it's a total no-brainer."
JQ and GQ's wordplay is irresistibly irreverent - Don John greets Borachio's plan to frame Hero with "Let's try it, fuck it!/ If this shit works, I'll give you a thousand ducats" - though I could have lived without Beatrice's (or Queen B's) matronly lecture on how a woman might best exploit her breasts.
Still, it's easy to forgive a show that recasts Much Ado as a pugnacious street comedy. Claudio: "I got a taste of my own medicine." Hero: "We were on a love boat and your ass got jettisoned." As the original rapper himself might have said, that is, like, totally phat.
