I don’t have a dramatic role in this play, but I do have a singing one – I sing ‘Pardon, Goddess of the Night’ in Act 5, Scene 3. Listen to the song here.

In one of his darker comedies, Shakespeare explores the themes of love, fidelity, innuendo and betrayal.  The plays opens in a frolic of merriment,  but the mood darkens with the entrance of sinister Don John, one of the most unrelievedly villainous characters in the Shakesperean canon. His machinations to wreck the marriage of Claudio and Hero are eventually exposed by the inadvertent arrival of the sententious Constable Dogberry, but not before significant damage has been done to the idyllic relationship between the young lovers.   As a counterpoint to the adolescent passion of Claudio and Hero, Shakespeare adds a subplot featuring the rather cynical courtship ritual played out by Beatrice and Benedick.