Hot on the heels of the RSC's hugely enjoyable Much Ado set in 1950s Cuba comes another really cracking production, this time transposed to 1930s Sicily. Director Andrew Hilton is Shakespeare's plainest cook, but he allows himself and his cast plenty of fun, as well as more scenery than usual - a few tables, chairs and Chinese lanterns.
Dance, as both courtship rite and symbol of sexy abandon, is the central metaphor in a production that plays out Shakespeare's battle of the sexes as a dance in which love, loss, love regained and love recognised are marked out with a mixture of quiet formality and giddiness.
From the opening scenes, the behaviour of the quartet of would-be lovers is very different: Hero and Claudio's can't-take-their-eyes-off-each-other glances are in marked contrast with the way Benedick turns his back on Beatrice. Both couples have something to learn, but when Benedick and Beatrice join the merry dance of the human race in accepting love and each other with all their flaws, you have no doubt which couple will have the longer and happier marriage. As with dancing, it is all a matter of balance.
Much Ado is a play that requires its two leads to seduce the audience. Lucy Black and Jay Villiers do it magnificently. She looks like a neurotic librarian, he is paunchy, balding and unkempt, and yet, sparring with each other, they are sexy, funny, attractive and gloriously human in their insecurities. Some of the minor players are not quite so sharp as in previous seasons, but after eight unsubsidised years of first-class productions isn't it time the Arts Council realised it should be funding on the basis of merit, not geography?
· Until April 28. Box office: 0117-902 0344.
