The 46th season of Fort Collins’ OpenStage Theatre draws to a close with their traditional production of a Shakespeare play as an “under the stars” open-air theatre event. This time, it is Much Ado About Nothing, which is being performed on weekends from June 1 to June 29, 2019.
Much Ado About Nothing poster image courtesy OpenStage Theatre
Don Pedro, his illegitimate and therefore very angry and bitter half-brother Don John, and a group of Don Pedro’s soldiers, including Benedick and young Claudio, are returning home after a victorious war. They stop at the estate of Leonato, an old friend of Don Pedro’s, who has a daughter, Hero, that Claudio loves.
Don Pedro had had his eye on Hero, but ever magnanimous, decides to step aside for Claudio. Don John, sensing love is in the air and none of it is for him, is determined to prove a villain and do as much destruction to the happiness of the young lovers, and his brother, as he possibly can. Meanwhile, unaware of Don John’s machinations, Don Pedro and his
The Production
Fast-paced…
A full length production of Much Ado About Nothing runs about two-and-a-half hours, with an intermission. OpenStage’s production has been cut down with surgical precision, presenting all the essential scenes and giving audience members a brisk, straight-through running time of 90 minutes.
Even a 90-minute play can drag, but that’s not a worry with Judith Allen’s crisp direction and this delightful cast.
James Burns as Benedick and Sydney Parks Smith as Beatrice. Photo courtesy OpenStage Theatre
and funny…
Allen sets her production in Italy, right after World War II, with Don Pedro and his soldiers as American Army officers, and Beatrice in particular as a “land girl,” helping her uncle run the family estate.
The repartee and hate-or-is-it-love relationship between Benedick and Beatrice is one of the elements that makes Much Ado About Nothing so popular with audiences. James Burns as Benedick and Sydney Parks Smith as Beatrice have excellent chemistry together…and their individual “eavesdropping” (or “noting” to use the Elizabethan term) scenes where their friends discuss amongst themselves how Beatrice loves Benedick, and vice versa, are hilarious.
and thought-provoking
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Young Claudio (Kiernan Angley) loves Hero (Brikai Cordova), and she returns his love, but he is easily fooled by Don John (Andrew Cole), and that villain’s two allies, into thinking that Hero is not as chaste as she should be. Claudio does not hesitate to accuse Hero in public – right when they’re supposed to be exchanging their wedding vows, as a matter of fact – and the distraught Hero is viciously spurned by her father who is all-to-ready to believe this slander regarding his daughter.
It’s another example of ‘noting’ (in Elizabethan times ‘noting’ and ‘nothing’ were pronounced in a similar fashion so the title is a play on words), and is a mirror image of the trickery that Claudio and Don Pedro pulled on Benedick, yet those two gentlemen fall for Don John’s deception just as easily as Benedick did theirs. One wonders if these misunderstandings give food for thought to today’s audiences to not take things at face value or jump to conclusions, and always seek out both sides of a story before condemning someone!
Angley as Claudio and Cordova as Hero get to display their comic timing during the two separate trickery scenes with Beatrice and Benedick, before their own romance crashes on the rocks of Don John’s duplicity and their emotions become overwrought (but not overplayed).
A couple of roles are double cast, and Andrew Cole enjoys himself as the evil Don John, and the more mild and good-natured sexton. It’s always fun to see an actor deliver two opposite personality performances in the same production. Dan Tschirhart as the Brooklynite villain Borachio and the honorable Friar Frances also delivers on this double role.
Cary Klataske also shines as Constable Dogberry, the “clown” of the piece ,with his self-importance and his tortured misuse of practically every multi-syllabic word. Shannon Nicole Light plays a double role, too, as Margaret, servant to Hero, and as Hugh Otecake, the dim-witted member of the Night Watch (or “security guard,” in this version) who ends up saving the day.
Much Ado About Nothing is a lot of fun, and should not be missed.
The Experience
OpenStage’s Shakespeare productions take place “under the stars,” at The Park at Columbine Health Systems, which is located at 947 Worthington Circle. There is plenty of street parking on Worthington.
The stage is in a park, and audience members bring their own lawn chairs. Those who brig blankets rather than chairs can sit right down in the area in front of the stage. There’s a sound system and lights, so even audience members at the back can hear and see well.
Seating begins at 6 pm, and there will be a food truck parked on Worthington at that time, so that audience members can buy food and drink and relax in their chairs while waiting for the show.
There’s a double-sized port-a-potty just a brief walk away, which is always nice!
How to Get There
Tickets are $27 for adults and $22 for seniors, and can be booked through the Lincoln Center box office.
If you’re coming from points north or south of Fort Collins, take Exit 268 onto Prospect Road. After 4.3 miles, turn left onto Center Avenue, and after .8 of a mile turn right onto Worthington Circle. Drive .2 miles to your destination. You’ll see a food truck parked on your left, with the park and the stage beyond it.
