Much Ado About Nothing review – gaiety abounds in the Globe’s great garden party

‘Stylish gowns, leisurely timing and fluid movement’ … Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Photograph: Antonio Olmos/the Observer

Even on a spring night blighted by a sudden cold snap, this production emanates the end of gloom and the start of a glorious summer. Set in April 1945 in northern Italy, days before the defeat of Mussolini’s fascist forces, there is a palpable sense of celebration as the heroes of war are welcomed back, with wine, singing and a troupe of accordionists.

Lucy Bailey’s production is a thoroughly elegant one, with stylish gowns, leisurely timing and fluid movement across the stage’s various parts. Joanna Parker’s set is designed as one great garden, an aptly pastoral setting for the play’s two love stories, with climbing ivy across the back and islands of green turf at the front.