Much Ado About Nothing

No, this is not some smart sarcastic comment on a current event but the name of the play I saw today. It's always been my favourite Shakespeare comedy since I saw the BBC version years ago, with Cherie Lunghi and Robert Lindsay. It really is very sexy, two equals sparring at each other, unlike Taming of the Shrew which grates on my feminist sensibilites.
      This was my first visit to the new Court Theatre, relocated in Addington, an old industrial area of town,  escaping the badly-damaged city site that was their home for many years. Next to an old ruined flour mill and almost on top of the railway line, the new theatre is housed in a large warehouse. I really like it; it's much roomier and has great parking, unlike the old cramped quarters. This area of town is
about to undergo a renaissance. There are plans afoot for the old flour mill site next door to be a shopping/entertainment/restaurant precinct, and there are already two theatres close together, the Court, and the Riccarton Players Mill Theatre in an adjoining building. Look at the facebook site New Christchurch if you'd like to see the drawings.
  The performance was very enjoyable. The set design was wonderful, transporting us to sunny Sicily, and the ladies' costumes inspiring. (I sat there trying to work out why we don't wear such feminine clothes anymore - what ever happened to beautiful textiles? why do we wear so much black?)  On the minus side, the sound is a bit dead in some parts of the stage, and some of the younger players' showed their inexperience.  Shakespearean speech is not like ordinary speech; it needs to be given a certain rhythm and emphasis if the meaning is to be conveyed properly. It's not to be played sotto voce or with the Kiwi habit of upwards inflexion at the end of the sentence? Making it sound like a question?  Perhaps this is the fault of a director too lazy or reluctant to pull newbies up. But I'm being too critical perhaps; I still enjoyed myself and the rest of the audience seemed to too, mainly older persons (thank God no school groups, although some bloody fool dropped their bloody Jaffas right at the critical moment when Benedick speaks his love for the first time).

PS. Why DO people eat during performances? Can't they go for two hours without snacking? Same goes for those people who buy giant tubs of popcorn at the movies - are they afraid they'll die of starvation before the movie ends?