Loughborough College has delighted theatre audiences with a twentieth century-set performance of one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies.
The 18-strong cast of performing arts students brought ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ forward more than 400 years and took inspiration from a very famous series of movies.
“We kept the action in Italy but wanted the feel of a humorous ‘The Godfather’, with characters returning from the Second World War,” said Emma Ledsam, Creative Arts lead at Loughborough College.
“The play is all about confusion and misdirection, which would lose some of its power with modern technology and social media but the post-war setting worked brilliantly.
“We also made the normally all-male The Watch all female instead, which gave it a really interesting edge.
“One of our students, Sophia Wallis, acted as our Assistant Director and directed several scenes in the show as well as understudying one of the roles.
“The staging was very simple so all the focus was on the performances and our students pitched the comedy perfectly.
“They have all come so far during their time studying with us and really brought their game on the night. The audience loved it. “
The Loughborough College cast of Much Ado About Nothing were: Effie Langley-Evans, Gemma Shortland, Megan Smith, Katelyn Murphy, Emelia Hargraves, Roby Singh, Malakye Galloway-Baxter, Iman Mohammadi, Christie King, Katie Johnson, Sophia Wallis, Iona Wilkins, Gabriella Young, Rhianne Wignall, Rebecca Burgess, Amy Cole, Sydney Perkins, Josiah Oladoyin