Meet the Much Ado About Nothing Cast: Catherine Lamb and Tom Palmer

Catherine Lamb

We're heading into the final week of rehearsals for Much Ado About Nothing, so we had a quick chat with Catherine and Tom, who play Hero and Claudio in the Stafford Festival Shakespeare production.

SGT: What made you want to be involved with the show?

CL: Hero is a great part and I have heard great things about the festival. It’s going to be a lot of fun and it’s one of my favourite Shakespeare plays.

TP: The opportunity to perform in my first professional Shakespeare and especially the outdoor element. It seemed like a fun team of cast and creatives and an exciting setting in which to perform.


SGT: The event takes place in a very unique setting, have you performed in the grounds of a castle or any other unusual setting before?

TP: No, though I have done Romeo and Juliet in a series of churches across London.

SGT: Could you tell us a little bit about your characters?

CL: Hero very quickly falls madly in love with Claudio. She’s very naive and innocent. She’s a kind young girl who really looks up to her cousin Beatrice.

TP: Claudio is a noble, honourable young man who is evidently an adept soldier. He is madly in love with Hero though this love drives him to make rash decisions.

Tom Palmer

SGT: What do you think your character brings to the play?

CL: I think Hero brings the heartache into show. The audience will empathise with her when she is falsely accused of sleeping with Borachio.

TP: Claudio shows how much love can change a man, and is perhaps the very reason Benedick has vowed to love no woman.

SGT: What do you love most about Much Ado About Nothing as a play?

CL: I think it’s extremely funny and I love the show and varied female characters in the play.

TP: Benedick and Beatrice are a unique set of lovers that really subvert a traditional courtly romantic storyline.



SGT: What do you think the audience will enjoy most about this year’s production and setting?


CL: The post war setting will bring a great atmosphere to the piece as will the music of all period!

TP: The setting is particularly timely and the period seems to work well within or surroundings.


You can book tickets to see Catherine and Tom in Much Ado About Nothing by clicking here.

The show opens on Thursday 25th June and runs until Saturday 11th July at Stafford Castle.