The phrase “it seemed like a good idea at the time” has a terrible resonance in most lives, but must surely currently be thumping in the skull of the actor-director Mark Rylance. When he discussed possible future projects with James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave after seeing them in Driving Miss Daisy, they were tempted by the opening line of Much Ado About Nothing – “What, my Dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?” – into thinking that perhaps an 82-year-old man and a 76-year-old woman could play the reluctant lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, in an age-updated production of the play.Leaving aside the fact that the point of Benedick’s gibe is that he has dreamed an enemy dead, rather than being shocked at her longevity, the problem is that no othe