Nothing Much To Do begins with Beatrice moving from Wellington to Auckland to live with her cousins Hero and Leo while her parents work in Australia. Hero and Leo's parents, a lesbian couple, are on a belated six month honeymoon, so the teenagers and Leo have the house to themselves. This is already a big difference to Shakespeare's text: Hero and Beatrice are not in Leo's custody, although he likes to play the protective older brother. Beatrice is an emancipated girl who is able to make choices about her own life. She explains that her parents allowed to her to choose a place to stay and a school to attend. Beatrice chose Messina High School because of its science department and her friends in Auckland (“And So It Begins...“).
Compared to …show more content…
The dialogue in the scene is a modern English translation of the same scene in Much Ado About Nothing (III, I): Hero deems Beatrice too proud (“The Limits of Technology and the Art of Self-Representation in a Modern World”, 2:52) and “too busy being in love with herself” (3:00), and Ursula agrees that if Beatrice found out about Benedick's feelings she would use the knowledge to tease him (3:16). They criticize Beatrice's habit of finding flaws in every boy she meets, and praise Ben for being “the hottest guy at their school – apart from Claudio and Robbie of course!” (4:00). Like in Shakespeare's text, Hero suggests telling Benedick things about Beatrice that will make him not like her anymore (4:33) but her friends disagree. They finally decide that the only thing they can do is keep Benedick's feelings a secret from Beatrice to protect him from getting hurt even more. The video is filmed by Beatrice, who hides behind a pillar in the kitchen. Hero, Ursula and Meg can be seen in the left half of the screen, although out of focus, while the right half shows Beatrice's mimic reactions to the supposedly secret conversation. Her facial expressions show that her friends' worries are not completely unfounded: when she hears that Benedick was crying (1:49) or that he reads poetry (2:02) she seems to be amused, but her expression quickly changes to disgust when she finds out the reason (2:17). When Hero claims “she would absolutely tear [Benedick] apart” (3:22) if she found out about his feelings, Beatrice smiles and nods. Her reactions switch back and forth between being amused, confused and slightly offended by her friends'
Compared to …show more content…
The dialogue in the scene is a modern English translation of the same scene in Much Ado About Nothing (III, I): Hero deems Beatrice too proud (“The Limits of Technology and the Art of Self-Representation in a Modern World”, 2:52) and “too busy being in love with herself” (3:00), and Ursula agrees that if Beatrice found out about Benedick's feelings she would use the knowledge to tease him (3:16). They criticize Beatrice's habit of finding flaws in every boy she meets, and praise Ben for being “the hottest guy at their school – apart from Claudio and Robbie of course!” (4:00). Like in Shakespeare's text, Hero suggests telling Benedick things about Beatrice that will make him not like her anymore (4:33) but her friends disagree. They finally decide that the only thing they can do is keep Benedick's feelings a secret from Beatrice to protect him from getting hurt even more. The video is filmed by Beatrice, who hides behind a pillar in the kitchen. Hero, Ursula and Meg can be seen in the left half of the screen, although out of focus, while the right half shows Beatrice's mimic reactions to the supposedly secret conversation. Her facial expressions show that her friends' worries are not completely unfounded: when she hears that Benedick was crying (1:49) or that he reads poetry (2:02) she seems to be amused, but her expression quickly changes to disgust when she finds out the reason (2:17). When Hero claims “she would absolutely tear [Benedick] apart” (3:22) if she found out about his feelings, Beatrice smiles and nods. Her reactions switch back and forth between being amused, confused and slightly offended by her friends'