SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Great actors have been appearing in Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" since about 1599. But in a new production directed by Jamie Lloyd, the play is set in a rain of pink confetti and performed between the thumps of dance music, Backstreet Boys to Beastie Boys.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU GOT TO FIGHT")
BEASTIE BOYS: (Singing) You got to fight for your right to party.
SIMON: The reimagination of this classic about bantering couples and the perils of gossip swept London's West End last year and is opening on Broadway next week. "Much Ado About Nothing" stars Tom Hiddleston as Benedick, and Beatrice, his partner in riposte, is played by Hayley Atwell. She's appeared in "Brideshead Revisited," "Cinderella," "Mission: Impossible." And, of course, for fans of Marvel films, she's best known as Agent Peggy Carter. And Hayley Atwell joins us in her studios in New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
HAYLEY ATWELL: Oh, pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.
SIMON: How do you explain this relationship between what seems to be two confirmed singles, Benedick and Beatrice?
ATWELL: It's sort of the original rom-com, so it fulfills that formula of sort of miscommunication and cross wires and two people who are using their wit as a defense against potentially being hurt by the other. So they're both - you know, as we are, Tom and I - in our 40s, and they've had a lifetime of struggles with romance. And what's beautiful about the text is that there's so much wit and humor to it, but there's so much sadness in them both. And so it's an attempt to break down those barriers so they can have an authentic relationship.
SIMON: This is not the most scholarly question. Why all the pink confetti...
ATWELL: (Laughter).
SIMON: ...Coming down all the time?
ATWELL: Well, this is my third time working with Jamie Lloyd, and as he, I think, distilled his style, things became much more stripped back. And he was really interested in actors in three-dimensional space and text and discovering that you can play with visuals in the theater in a way that it didn't have to be literal, particularly in Shakespeare. You know, when I called him and I said, OK, I would love to play Beatrice opposite Tom. But I have two questions for you. Will there be any barn dancing, and how "Hey Nonny Nonny!" is it?
SIMON: (Laughter).
ATWELL: And it wasn't until I had the first day of rehearsals with him that the pink confetti came out and the music started to sort of play in the...
SIMON: Yeah.
ATWELL: ...Rehearsal space. We knew that he wanted it to be rooted in a clarity of this text. And that was where it fell to Tom and I so that the pink confetti and the music is not a gimmick but it can really contain an immersive world in which the giddiness of the dancing and the partying and getting things a little bit too drunk and people flirting with the wrong people can have that sense of serotonin, pop and fun.
SIMON: I mean, can you see each other through the pink confetti...
ATWELL: (Laughter).
SIMON: ...When you're on stage?
ATWELL: There have been times when we've both inhaled quite a lot of the pink confetti. That has stopped me jumping into his arms. That has stopped him to recite lines. I slipped on stage in the confetti two nights ago. Tom slipped on stage in London. I mean, we are really suffering (laughter). But we love the joy that it brings to audiences.
SIMON: And did you get much training in club dancing when you were at the Guildhall in London?
ATWELL: I would say my club training was in the clubs.
SIMON: Oh. All right.
ATWELL: (Laughter).
SIMON: You get so many good lines as Beatrice. I would rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me. Bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours. Does that make men fear such an outspoken woman?
ATWELL: I don't see her as outspoken. I see her as someone who is really lonely and really scared of admitting that to herself, let alone someone else. And the way that that manifests for her is using defensive wit to present to the world that she doesn't need a man. And I think it's not until we get into what happens to Hero that we see two people's hearts open up, and we see a woman saying there is a woman here that I love, my cousin, who is not being believed. And I wish I was a man, because if I were a man, in this instance, I would have power to protect her, to defend her, to put it to right. And what she's asking of him then, in that moment, is for him to use the love he says he has for her to do something right with it. And I mock him.
SIMON: Yeah.
ATWELL: Benedick speaks to the audience and does all this (clucking tongue) and, like, points to the audience and is loving the attention from women in the audience, which, of course, we use the fan base of Loki, who just loves Tom doing anything, to also...
SIMON: Including, I must say - there was almost a standing ovation for him baring his six-pack.
ATWELL: Exactly.
SIMON: Yeah.
ATWELL: And that's, you know, part of the fun of it. But also, I, from the perspective of Beatrice, that's her also going, you're an idiot, and that's not love - you getting all this attention from women and courting it, but then going, but I will love no one. Tom and I are dear friends, and there's a lot of trust between us, so I was able to lean into that by mocking him and going, you know, men are melted into curtsies, and valor becomes compliment. And that's me going, when the audience are complimenting your six-pack...
SIMON: Yeah.
ATWELL: That's what they regard as valor now.
SIMON: Do you think some of that message is received differently in these days when so many voices are urging men and women to believe the voices of women who say they've been affronted, assaulted?
ATWELL: It does feel very potent when I'm saying certain lines in this play that's 400 years old. You know, the language that we have now - what I'm hearing so much about allyship, about women wanting men to believe us, but women also wanting men to protect us by protecting us from the bad guys, and going, it's not just about the bad guys, and it's not just about women looking after themselves against the bad guys, but it's asking the good guys to also look after us, and not just directly, but also by holding their friends accountable.
And I think one of the reasons why audiences have, by the end of this, feeling like there was an explosion of joy is because the joy isn't frivolous. The pink confetti and the '90s music is not a distraction. It's almost a kind of radical act that joy can coexist and must coexist alongside the real horrors of the world and that joy is a serious thing.
SIMON: So all the thumping in the beats we hear, is that the human heart?
ATWELL: I think so - Jamie's understanding of rhythm not just within the text, but the undercurrent of a beat. This party scene that feels, at times, very hypnotic and sort of whips you up into a particular kind of frequency. We all experience it collectively wherein live music or even, indeed, in places of worship. I think, when art changes people, it is because it's collectively changing the way that we all experiencing that beat in a room mimicking the heart. Which means you can have all the pink confetti that you want, as long as underneath it, the humanity is there.
SIMON: Hayley Atwell, who stars with Tom Hiddleston in the new, very pink production, "Much Ado About Nothing," at the Winter Garden Theater in New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
ATWELL: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF LUCA SESTAK'S "ANTICIPATION") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
