Taking the role of gentle nobleman ‘Leonato’ was consummate Shakespearian actor Peter Bygott, who appeared most recently in the RSC’s As You Like It.' His other stage credits for the RSC include Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and he also appeared Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 film version of Hamlet.

---

18 April 07, Philip Key, at Liverpool Daily Post, said:

The maid Margaret has a comic Birmingham accent in Ally Holmes’s performance, while Peter Bygott is a commanding Leonato.

---

Thursday 19 April 2007, Alfred Hickling, at The Guardian said:

Shakespeare's comedy is about what happens when the outbreak of peace leaves soldiers with their "war thoughts vacant", so it seems a felicitous idea to conceive Beatrice as a strapping landgirl and Benedick as an officer-class clown, while the suggestion that Leonato is a diplomat recently recalled from Italy makes sense of the potentially troublesome references to Messina.

---

Last updated: 9th April 2007

Return to *Much Ado* I Theatre   I Audio I TV & Movies I Biography
SB Homepage I Articles I Updates I Gallery I Site Index