We were gifted tickets to this performance of Shitfaced Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing but words and pictures are my own.
You may well think that Shakespeare has been done to death. There are no end of earnest and traditional productions of various quality, and many of Shakespeare’s plays have been jazzed up and modernised, recognising that the average person on the street has no idea what’s going on otherwise.
The twist in this particular production is that one of the six cast members has, we are told, been drinking solidly throughout the afternoon and has to perform their role ‘shitfaced’ – and that’s why it’s called Shitfaced Shakespeare.
Sounds fun right?
Shitfaced Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing review
I had heard of Shitfaced Shakespeare prior to being invited along to review it; a friend had gone to see a different production for her birthday, but sadly I wasn’t able to go. Being a fan of the theatre and terrible sufferer of FOMO, I was quite intrigued to see it for myself.
Much Ado About Nothing is one of the few Shakespeare plays which I kind of know a bit about – a man (Claudio) falls in love with woman (Hero), their friend and cousin (Benedick and Beatrice) hate the idea of love until they’re set up with each other. There’s a bit of subterfuge, a death in there, and a big reveal at the end. I don’t want to spoil it for you if by some miracle you’ve not come across it before.
There’s also quite a bit about chlamydia, but thinking about it that was probably a drunk addition, as I don’t recall it from school.
The whole show is compered by another, sober, cast member – and there is a bit of audience participation to boot.
Are they really drunk in Shitfaced Shakespeare?
The cast in Much Ado About Nothing rotate, with each actor and the Compere taking on several roles over the run. The drunk actor swaps each evening, so that each actor does about 4 shitfaced performances a month. Which, as the brochure pointed out (entirely ruining my intended joke) is probably less than traditional Shakespeare performances.
Prior to the performance that we attended in the Leicester Square Theatre, Flora – playing Beatrice – had drunk her way through two bottles of wine, we were told. This would be enough to reduce me to tripping over my skirt and vomiting in a bin. Perhaps, at a lofty 6ft tall perhaps Flora is less easily inebriated than myself, but it didn’t ring true to me. I’m a fairly experienced wine drinker (ahem) but after that much to drink I would be absolutely unable to speak coherently, much less be able to come out with funny quips and perfectly timed swearwords. If she was genuinely shitfaced, she’s a machine. If she wasn’t, then the whole thing seems a bit contrived.
Throughout the performance, she was given a further three bottles of beer (who goes for something fizzy after wine? Madness) which, mercifully, we only saw her take a few sips from. Despite this, she didn’t appear to sober up at all during the performance which lasted for a few hours including the interval. Again, it made me doubt the authenticity of the whole thing, as my hangover would have started to kick in about halfway through and I would have probably gone for a nap.
I feel like a better and certainly more convincing way to do something like this, should you wish to, would be to drink the wine during the performance so that the audience could witness the effects of the alcohol taking over in real time as the play descended into madness and nonsense.
But that got me thinking. Would it even be allowed?
And did I want to see a genuinely drunk person up there, making an idiot of themselves for my entertainment?
Or is that just a little bit… Cruel and, for audience members like me, a bit uncomfortable?
Certainly no one is forcing them to take part and the cast all seemed to enjoy themselves. They are clearly very friendly with each other and enjoy taking part. However I must admit that by the halfway mark I did find myself wanting to watch the play without the ‘drunken’ interruptions, rambling and tangents, which I concede probably just makes me an old fart.
It struck me that the majority of the audience were young; in their 20s probably and they were absolutely loving it. There was no shortage of raucous laughter throughout. As an almost 40-something I have a lot of experience with shitfaced people (and not an insignificant amount of experience of being that way myself) and so many I find it just less amusing in general.
Or maybe I should have had more to drink?
Despite what I’ve just said, I feel you do have to commend the rest of the cast for being able to improvise and work around the drunk (/possibly sober and purposefully annoying) cast member with their going off-script, falling over and swearing loudly. The play has a really fun atmosphere and if you have palpitations remembering Shakespeare from school, then it might be the perfect gateway back into it.
Shitfaced Shakespeare ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ Tour
If you fancy giving it a go, the cast are touring during September and October. You can find the dates on their website.
