Swedish director Maria Aberg, making her Royal Exchange debut, sets the play in 1945 post-war Britain and strives to play in the effects of war on the home front, where women are in charge and have taken on men's roles. The same goes for some of the casting here. Gender-blind casting is apparently a mission of hers, to redress a male bias. So Leonato, still listed as the Governor of Messina, becomes Leonata, while Co…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:09AM on April 2, 2014