Wow. You put into succinct words everything I have a problem with in this play, I feel like I could have written this myself if I had a) the eloquence and b) the objectivity! I love this play beyond all reason. For me on a personal level it is inextricably bound up with so much joy that I could never bring myself to articulate all these issues but a big heck yes to EVERYTHING! Where are the non-white actors? Why is the villain gay?

I do think though that the not shying away from portraying negative marriages juxtaposed with the unadulterated joy of weddings is one of the pluses for me because it's a big old neon highlighter to that hypocrisy. But then, as with the overemphasis on physical farce, did they really mean to go for that because the wedding joy is presented so unselfconsciously as a happy ending that I just...yeah. The violence is extremely difficult to watch, but I am glad they were as full on with it as there were, but then similarly I am left cold that were are suddenly rooting for Claudio/Hero twoo luv again.

I adore Catherine Tate beyond reason too and yet I did find myself wondering at times "are you really playing it this way because that was the director's idea?" I dunno. Catherine and David had so much leeway in this production right from the beginning and yet they conform to the director's vision more than I would have thought. They do on occasion play for laughs more than is true to the characters :/ but then they capture the absurdity beautifully.

Anyway, thanks for this, and for letting me momentarily acknowledge these things, I'll now return to my regularly scheduled MAAN squeee!