David Tennant: We’ve not stopped doing stuff together since then. I did a bit on Catherine’s Christmas show, and we stood in for Jonathan Ross [on Radio 2] a few times.
Catherine Tate: I had an idea that I would like to do Much Ado with David, but there wasn’t some big plan at the end of Doctor Who for us to do this.
DT: No, it grew from a casual conversation to very quickly gaining its own life. Towards the end of last year, we put the idea out there, and Sonia [Friedman, the West End producer] was really up for it.
DC: Did you worry Doctor Who fans might bring too much baggage with them?
DT I know that was said a lot when I did Hamlet for the RSC [in 2008], but, to be honest, it never occurred to me. I just imagined people would be sensible enough not to bring those preconceptions with them. It’s probably slightly naïve, but it genuinely didn’t occur to me with this either. Perhaps it should have done.
It would be disingenuous to suggest that the fact this is happening hasn’t got something to do with the power of Doctor Who, and that’s something I’m wonderfully thankful for. But, for me, the thinking was “I’d like to do a play; I’d like to do Much Ado About Nothing; and it just so happens that the perfect Beatrice in my head is Catherine”. That’s as involved as my thought process was.
CT: Benedick and Beatrice are similar to the Doctor and Donna in some ways – there’s a lot of sparring – but this is a romantic relationship, which was never the case in Doctor Who. Of course, there’s a natural desire to see that energy between us being recreated. I trust people have more sense than to assume it will be the same.
DC: You’ve also got a very sizeable following thanks to The Catherine Tate Show. You could even say there’s a slight touch of “Am I bovvered?” about Beatrice.
CT: Maybe. Lauren and Beatrice are independent, opinionated women of different generations and from different ages. Lauren talks very fast, and the wit of Shakespeare is very fleet of gob. But I don’t think people will expect me to come out and be as belligerent as that. And it would pain my heart to think anyone imagines I’ll wink across the footlights and say, “Am I bovvered?” If there is, I’m going to disappoint them.
DC: Josie, where did you come in?
Josie Rourke: I got a call saying, “Would you be interested in doing a production of Much Ado About Nothing with Catherine Tate and David Tennant?” And it’s a dream job, really. Their chemistry is very profound but it’s directed outwards: this has been one of the happiest acting companies I’ve worked with. It’s also very helpful when you’re conceiving a production knowing some of the casting. If it had been a different Beatrice and Benedick, it would have been a different production.
DT: I was slightly dreading that when we met Josie she would suggest a ruff!
CT: At our first meeting she said, “You’re very modern actors – we can’t put you in a ruff!” Which was a relief.
DT: I’ve worn a ruff in my time, but I’m glad not to be doing so on this occasion
JR: I think either of you could pull off a ruff, but, no, this is being set in the early to mid 1980s. Our Messina is a place that’s a bit like Malta or Gibraltar: it has a sense of being a key military base and a place where soldiers go for rest and recuperation after they’ve been to war.
As a setting, it’s also useful in understanding the female characters. Without pushing it too hard, we’re suggesting that Beatrice has inherited the legacy of 1970s feminism. I think that’s helpful.
DC: The phrase “sex war” does cut to the chase of the play, doesn’t it? What makes Benedick so antagonistic, outwardly at least, to the opposite sex, do you think?
DT: I sense that all that misogyny comes out of self-loathing. There’s fear of commitment, fear of emotional attachment and vulnerability.
It’s very recognisable. It strikes me how this play is really the template for every romantic comedy – the couple who can’t live with each other, can’t live without each other.
CT: We meet them at a time when you get the sense that they’ve been the coolest people in the room, and they’re getting to an age when they’re going to get left on the shelf and start looking sad. They both very quickly cave in when they think the other loves them.
DT: They cave in with enthusiasm!
CT: What’s lovely is that you get to see Beatrice’s softer side. As brilliant as many of the other female characters in Shakespeare are, she’s the most attractive to me. As well as her wit, some of her lines are beautiful. She’s an orphan, so there’s this sadness to her.
DC: Do you have to work against expectations that you’ll always be funny?
CT: I’ve got to a place now where I’m not in control of how I’m perceived. I have no doubt that, whatever I do, most people will remember me for being a sweary old nan and a belligerent teenager. If people want to laugh even when I’m not being funny, I’ll thank them for it. I can only do what I do.
DC: This is your Shakespearean debut, isn’t it?
CT: Yes, as a professional actor it is, although I did a lot of Shakespeare at drama school [Central]. I’ve never shied away from it; it’s just that I’ve never been asked.
I went from an unemployed actor’s life to doing stand-up comedy, and that was fortuitous. It’s not the usual way the crow flies, going from being in a TV sketch show to playing one of Shakespeare’s finest characters, but, hey, that’s the way it has happened.
DC: By contrast, David Tennant, you’ve starred in many Shakespeare productions. Perhaps the biggest single difference this time round is that you’re undertaking a major stage role having recently become a dad. How are you coping with that?
DT: Oh, stop it now. Move on!
CT: He’s not going to answer that question. I’m talking as his publicist!
DC: I just thought you might be a bit tired.
CT: We’re all tired, love. He’s not working any harder than the rest of us!
DT: Seven shows a week? You know, it’s going to be lovely, actually. I honestly can’t wait.
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