Sean Holmes’s sunkissed production of Shakespeare’s comedy has arch, spirited performances from Amalia Vitale and Ekow Quartey as its central, wittily unwilling lovers, and a colour palette evoking blue Italian skies and ripe Seville oranges. The stylised trees on which these lustrous fruits hang conceal spikes, much like the plot.
Beneath the banter and the highly efficient physical comedy, Holmes shows how things work in 16th century Messina. When a group of aristocratic soldiers land on his doorstep, returning from the wars, governor Leonato is disappointed that his daughter Hero has only snagged young count Claudio, rather than the raffish prince, Don Pedro.
