Much Ado About Nothing, Restorative Nostalgia and the Costume Drama: Tires and Rebatoes, Corsets and Lace

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Much Ado About Nothing as a ‘Costume Drama’. It draws on Svetlana Boym’s definitions of two kinds of cultural nostalgia: the first she names restorative nostalgia, which looks back at an idealised set of tropes and traditions and imagines them as ultimate truths; the second is reflective nostalgia, which owns its own longings and contradictions more reflectively and critically. The chapter uses these definitions as starting points for a consideration of Much Ado at the Royal Shakespeare Company and its relationship to film and television ‘costume dramas’, or ‘heritage films’. This chapter contends that costume designs which demand one looks at clothes make this comedy a more productively awkward, unsettling experience for modern audiences than some of the beautiful designs that ask that one looks through clothes.