Much Ado About Nothing - TNT

Simon Russell Beale and Zoe Wanamaker give delightful performances of real depth as the reluctant middle-aged lovers at the centre of Nicholas Hytner's light-filled production of Shakespeare's comedy. Vicki Mortimer's airy design provides plenty of scope for comic eavesdropping - not to mention a surprise dousing - as Russell Beale's confirmed bachelor soldier Benedick (a comic tour de force infused with heartfelt emotion) and Wanamaker's spiky, cynical Beatrice are forced into the realisation that ( no matter what hurt they may have inflicted in the past) they really are made for each other. As their verbal sparring is replaced by an unexpected tenderness it proves, for audience and protagonists alike, a match truly made in heaven.
Olivier at the National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 (020-7452 3000). Until March 29. £10-£39.50