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Playwright/director Emily Elizabeth’s interpretation of Much Ado About Nothing participates in a popular tradition- that of both updating Shakespearean comedy with modern language (see 10 Things I Hate About You, She’s the Man, even 2023’s frustrating attempt at the same treatment for this very play- Anyone But You) and the impulse towards “fixing” Much Ado. It’s a fun text with bright female characters and lots of potential for memorable physical comedy but modern companies struggle with the dark final acts and chauvinistic plot turns. This is usually addressed by forcing an original speech or two into Shakespeare’s text, some big monologue about how what’s going down with Claudio is wrong.
A far better solution is this one, in which Elizabeth removes the lyrics but plays the tune of Shakespeare’s play. The work so completely honours the original that you’ll hardly notice that nearly every word is changed, and the completeness of the update means that there’s none of the strange “we’re interrupting Shakespeare to bring you this modern message about feminism” feeling of the half measure versions. Much Ado is mostly written in prose so it’s remarkable how well Elizabeth is able to mimic its rhythms, some jokes hitting a beat so accurately you’d think the cast rehearsed the original text before swapping it out for the update. Every performer here clearly has solid classical technique and they bring that style and training with them to this performance, delivering the mostly modern (though sometimes stylized) dialogue with the familiar cadence of classical theatre. It’s a fascinating, memorable effect that I’ve never seen achieved before.
The adaptation resets the comedy to a college campus, recasting the soldiers as an all-gender soccer team and lowering high stakes events like weddings to school dances while raising the personal stakes of the characters by tackling societal pressures and prejudices around gender and sexuality. “Jonathan” (usually Don John, played with such skill by standout Liam Kinahan that he routinely gets full house laughs with a single word of dialogue) is a slighted lonelyboy whose whiny antics degrade to incel hostility over the course of a perfectly calibrated tonal arc. His sidekicks (Siyu Han and Demi-Lee Bainbridge) weigh bro code against their moral codes and reach tellingly different conclusions, “Connor” (aka Conrad, played by Bainbridge)’s newfound inner life mercifully dispatching with the need for the original play’s Dogberry antics. Elizabeth takes an actual interest in the ingenue Hero (here “Hera” played with bright eyes and wrestled sadness by Naomi Morales) and develops Much Ado’s underwritten friendships to add enriching pressure to her story. Leonato (“Lea”, Jillian Robinson balancing a tough role with grace) even gets the benefit of thoughtful adaptation, becoming the school president whose unconscious prejudices and desperation to keep up appearances trump her better angels and clarify one of Shakespeare’s harshest dad speeches (not a low bar).
A backstory-armed and personality-amplified “Claudia” (a charmingly intense Keren Edelist) is able to come back from her character’s crimes with genuine remorse and accountability, easily wiping away the original text’s most problematic elements. Meanwhile, the play’s iconic bantery romance anchors the show as Elise Bauman’s magentic Ben sparks so palpably with Frances Loiselle’s vibrant Bea that the stage seems to sizzle. While smartly downgrading murder to expulsion, Elizabeth maintains the emotional stakes of the play’s later acts and gives them the dramatic weight they deserve without diverting too far from the light tone of the overall piece. There’s room for devastating parental betrayal AND a soccer-themed dance number (or a dance-like soccer sequence?). My one stupid complaint is that I could live without the last minute Heated Rivalry joke; it dates the text, draws pace-destroying applause, and they’ve already got the reference in earlier with a pointed music choice.
Brilliantly adapted, joyfully queer, and featuring the best ensemble of emerging artists I’ve seen all year, Such Ado! is a true Fringe gem. It’s early in the run and they’ve got lots of tickets left- go buy one.