Branagh said at the end "everybody dance" and Denzel just walked away.
"Time meant nothing, never would again." Rocky Horror
I hate to be pedantic - no I don't, I love to be pedantic, actually - but it's Benedick who says "Everybody dance" and Don Pedro who walks away. Actors don't make up their own business, you know, they are directed.
Modern productions often emphasise the loneliness of high rank in this play. "Prince, you are sad..." I remember a lovely National Theatre production, when they were still at the Old Vic, in which B & B were played by Robert Stephens and Maggie Smith. At the end Don Pedro (I think Derek Jacobi, but I can't be sure) was left alone on the empty stage as the others danced off; he looked up at the single spotlight illuminating him, smile ruefully and pff, blew it out, vanishing into the dark.
I just came off seeing a very good local production (from a small town's tiny Shakespeare rep) in which Leonato was changed to Leonata. There was an aspect of warmth--if not actual flirtation--in her interactions with Don Pedro, and at the end when Benedick said, "Prince, thou art sad, get thee a wife!" he smiled and took Leonata's hand.
shareOh sweet. Did it work in other ways, Leonato/Leonata? The wedding scene would be OK, the 'pit of ink' speech and all that.What about when he/she and Antonio want to fight the young men?
I once saw a local, church-hall type production of the Dream in which Puck was played by a fat middle-aged woman, I think on the grounds that she was the queen bee of the society and always got a plum part. I would love to say that it worked beautifully, but alas, it was horrible.
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I don't know if they re-assigned lines or not, but it seemed Antonio did much of the actual physical threats and Leonata the moral condemnation.
I had misgivings, but it all worked beautifully!
The only "the hell?" moment about this production was putting a re-written version of the "O, for a muse of fire" speech at the beginning, spoken by an actor playing Shakespeare.
The only other dodgy part was not giving Margaret a reason for not speaking up at the wedding scene...she just sat there, obviously upset, but the staging didn't give her a reason for not blurting out the truth then and there. Shakespeare gave no stage directions, so there's no "official" reason, but I like it when a director gives a plausible reason for things that might not be clear in the original plays. I've read of productions where Margaret seems about to speak...and Don John, unseen by anyone else, holds a dagger to her back.
In the director's commentary, Branagh says he wanted Denzel to do a cakewalk and a tap dance, "showing off the natural rhythm for which you people are famous." Surpsingly, Denzel found this patronizing and offensive.
shareBenedick doesn't say "everybody dance". He says "Come, come, we are friends: let's have a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts
and our wives' heels." Then, after Leonato says that the dancing will be afterwards, Benedick says to have it right away. Noticing Don Pedro alone, he tells him, "Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife!"
I don't think there's anything mean spirited about it, he's just realizing how happy a wife can make him and he wants his friend to be happy as well.
I think that Branagh the director, by showing that Don Pedro does not join in the dance, was showing how he is alone - part of the burden of his position (like when Beatrice turns him down earlier in the film because she wouldn't want the responsibilities involved in being his wife).
You think you’re smart, but you’re not. You’re dumb. Very dumb. But you’ve met your match in me!