Pia takes the Bard's Much Ado and puts some 'Essex' in to it

For director Pia Furtado when it comes to her Much Ado About Nothing, the stars appear to be very much in line, even down to the rehearsal room, which is more used to Scout gatherings than anything else.

That's the Bunting Rooms home to one of the oldest Scouting groups in the world, the 1st Colchester, perhaps an unlikely place to rehearse a major new Shakespeare production about to set foot on the Mercury stage but according to Pia actually pretty much perfect.

"We couldn't believe it when we got in here," she smiles. "Even the colour is spot on. When the set designer came in I asked whether they had painted it especially for us, it's a brilliant space. I love it."

Her enthusiasm is infectious as we sit down and talk about her highly anticipated version of Much Ado Nothing, mainly because it's being set in contemporary Essex.

A brave county for anyone to tackle, I suggest.

"Actually from my very first visit I thought it was the ideal place to stage this play," she replies. "Much Ado starts with the return of the soldiers and when I came to the Mercury I thought immediately there was this sense of the civil and the military side by side with each other.

"What comes with that is this really interesting class difference, which is deeply poignant to the British and our way of life. We still have that notion of the officer class and that opened up all kinds of possibilities in the play.

"In Much Ado there's this amazing line that Ursula says about Benedick, talking about how he's better than Claudio and that he earned it, ere he had it, and I think that's so true of Essex.

"Much has been made of Towie but the reason it's such a phenomenon is because there's something in that show which is strangely honest and that is rather beautiful."

As well as our class side, Pia has been exploring the county's feminist leanings so she was delighted when I mention that perhaps one of the most famous feminists of them all, Germaine Greer lives in Essex, admittedly about as far from Colchester as you can possibly get but a resident nonetheless.

"That's brilliant," she laughs. "I did not know that. Well there's a big feminist theme running through Much Ado with Beatrice on the one hand not wanting to be dictated to, and Margaret, who is basically all out there, and Hero who is caught between the two. There is huge pressure by the men in the play as to what the women should be and I think that's really interesting as well."

So there's class, feminism, soldiers and what else makes up the lovely melting pot of Pia's very Essex Much Ado?

At that point, and as if she planned it, a guitar strikes up and so I guess music also plays an important role in her production. But then I kind of thought that might be the case having read up on Pia's past.

"That's where it all started for me," she grins. "I just loved musical theatre, I still do, but essentially I found theatre through music."

Born and brought up in south east London, Pia started performing with the National Youth Music Theatre, which by her own admittance opened up a whole new world she didn't know existed.

"The director for a start," she jokes, "I didn't even know a job like that existed but I was fascinated by what they did, even at an early age. Eventually I ended up assisting the director and really enjoyed the process."

But for Pia she still wasn't convinced this theatre lark was something you could do in real life.

"It was strange," she admits, "I suppose I just didn't see it as a career I might be able to do for the rest of my life and so I decided I wanted to be a lawyer instead, which of course is very theatrical in itself."

But it wasn't long before the stage was calling her back.

"I did a bit of theatre when I was studying law at UCL," Pia continues, "but it wasn't until later that I started to really miss it and thought to myself why not give it a proper go so I phoned up the Kingshead Theatre in Islington, which is a tiny little place and as such the general manager picked up the phone and told me about this trainee assistant director's scheme.

"One of the people who I was on the scheme with is now a barrister so it's funny how our career paths have crossed."

There was certainly no going back to the law for Pia as she began to make her mark on the UK theatre scene with a number of hit shows including a musical about Nick Clegg, called Nicked, which ran at the High Tide Festival in Suffolk and Katie Bonna and Richard Marsh's Dirty Great Love Story, which won a Fringe First Award at Edinburgh and has since gone to a hit West End run and most recently a transfer to New York.

"I love directing new writing," she adds, "and I've worked with Richard quite a lot. Dirty Great Love Story was an interesting one because the two writers were performing it as well and it kept on morphing.

"Taking it over to America was especially fascinating because the show is very English (lots of jokes about drinking) and we had to temper it down just a little bit for the American audience."

Much Ado About Nothing

Mercury Theatre,

Balkerne Gate, Colchester.

September 30 until October 15. 7.30pm and 2.30pm (Thursdays and Saturdays)

£27 to £12 plus concessions. 01206 573948.

www.mercurytheatre.co.uk

Much Ado About What? - The Plot

The war is over. The boys are coming home, and the girls can’t wait for a summer of games to begin!

The most talked-about young soldier, Claudio, falls instantly for innocent and beautiful Hero (the daughter of his Garrison commander) while brilliant Beatrice and ladies’ man Benedick, pick up where they left off – warring with wit and words.

As the soldiers return to civilian life, everyone seems to want to scheme – friends and enemies alike. But can Beatrice and Benedick be fooled into falling in love with one another? And can everyone’s favourite 'perfect' couple – Claudio and Hero – be made to doubt their love and be taken down a peg or two?

And what is true love, anyway? Is all the romance and heartache just much ado about nothing?