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Nick Hytner on Dogberry and Verges' scenes
Unlike many of the famously funny scenes involving Beatrice and Benedick, the scenes with Dogberry, Verges and the Watch are very difficult to make funny. Nick Hytner, the director of Much Ado About Nothing, says that he “lucked out” by being able to cast two very funny actors (Mark Addy and Trevor Peacock) in these important roles. |
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Mark Addy on Dogberry
Mark plays Dogberry, who is a “pretty useless” Constable of the Watch (Messina’s local police force). He is very self-important, so much so that he’s never really aware of what’s actually going on around him. In short, as is said of him in the scene where he interrogates Conrade and Borachio, he is “an ass”. |
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Mark Addy on Dogberry and Verges' relationship
In this production of the play, Verges (played by Trevor Peacock) “looks on Dogberry as a kind of demi-god”. This only serves to further inflate Dogberry’s high opinion of himself, and add to the comedy of Dogberry’s idiotic character. |
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Mark Addy on comic acting
The most important thing in all types of acting is to find the truth of the character; this is just as true in comedy, even when the truth within a character like Dogberry is very odd! The double act between Dogberry and Verges is an important thing for Mark; he hates the thought of doing comedy alone.
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Mark Addy on the role of the audience in comedy
Mark Addy (playing the comic role of Dogberry) says it can be difficult to rehearse comedy, as one crucial player – the audience – is not yet present. |
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