In case you haven’t heard about Sh*t-Faced Shakespeare, the concept is pretty simple.  A group of experienced, trained actors put on an hour-long adaptation of a Shakespearean classic whilst one of them gets sh*t-faced.

Here, the troupe did Much Ado About Nothing, and the selected entertainment was the actress playing Beatrice. She had allegedly drunk two bottles of Prosecco before the show started and drank more throughout.

This had predictable results: she swayed; she made inappropriate comments about her fellow actors; she missed cues and lines.

Much Ado About Nothing’s new script was successful at telling the tale of two sets of lovers coming together amidst accusations, tragedies and lust, with the actor playing Benedick providing the perfect sober foil to Beatrice’s flourishes.

To give credit where it’s due, it was funny. But the sceptic in me wonders about how genuine the drunkeness really was. For a skilled comedic actress such as Stacey Norris, buffooning around on a stage pretending to be drunk would be simple.

Although her exaggerated movements and slurred words seem convincing, she remembers a lot of her lines perfectly, and never does anything that bad. She’s either a really fun drunk to be around, or putting it on a bit.