Much Ado About Nothing, set in Governor Leonato’s villa, is a Shakespearean comedy revolving around love, loss, trust, and comedic entrances. In an Italian city called Messina, Hero, Leonato’s daughter, and Claudio (a high-status soldier) fall head over heels in love at first sight and plan their wedding as soon as humanly possible; meanwhile, Benedick, who is friends with Don Pedro and Claudio, and Beatrice- who is Leonato’s niece and Hero’s cousin- dissemble paramount abhorrence of each other. All of this kindles a raging, drama-filled fire that just needs a spark to send it leaping towards the skies. This match is none other than Don John, who maliciously meddles in Hero and Claudio’s relationship by staging Claudio’s cuckoldry. Claudio, who was thoroughly convinced of this lie, slandered Hero in front of the entire wedding assembly. The friar skillfully crafts a plan to help Hero: she would fake her death and Leonato would ask Claudio if he would want to marry Hero’s “cousin”. This “cousin,” as the audience knows, is Hero. Beatrice and Benedick each get separately tricked by their friends into thinking the other is horribly in love with them. They do uncover their friend’s tomfoolery and read aloud their confessions of love written by their own hand and promptly get married without further ado. The Wyndham Theater and the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s version of Much Ado About Nothing carefully stage and perform this play; however, at heart, the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s version is more successful due to its character depth and attention to details.

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s version assuredly eclipses the 2011 theater production in terms of the staging and little details including live music and beautiful layered traditional clothing. Despite the fun beachy aesthetics of the 2011 theater production, the vineyard clearly encapsulates the era in which Shakespeare intended his play to be exhibited. The beautiful villa is a much more realistic setting than in a room which doesn’t seem to change much and relies heavily on the viewer’s imagination to fill in the gaps. The villa lends itself to many knee-slapping moments such as Benedick scuttling around and hiding in a barrel to listen to his friends’ dissembling testimonies, and then having wine poured on his back whilst he is in the barrel. Josie Rourke chose to throw her eggs all in one basket, relying on the audience to recognize more contemporary (-ish?)  music and references. This bold decision is a double-edged sword, demanding for the audience to keep pace with the dramatic irony and, simultaneously, these references that were quite distracting. For example, she included references to pop culture (Benedick’s Superman shirt, the Mario costume, etc..) as the kicker instead of the acting in the masquerade scene, for example. In terms of the amount of witty and clever jokes that could be conceived from this play, costumes are quite low-hanging fruit. These peculiar costumes in question distracted the audience from the acting and the sheer amount of dramatic irony happening in this key scene that the audience must be following for the play to make sense; meanwhile, in the 2024 version performed by Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, the jokes are either centered around audience interaction or an occasional witty comment and are coming from the actors during scenes that aren’t as crucial to the audience’s understanding as the masquerade scene. The exception, if you can call it that, to this is Benedick’s Micheal Jackson impression, which was done in a mirthful scene that was about songwriting and his devotion to Beatrice that had little dramatic irony and asides. While the 2011 theater production should be commended for riotous acting, they are lacking in other areas. The 2024 version performed by Cincinnati Shakespeare Company thrives in the areas of including little details such as live music, silly jokes that don’t take away from the play, and a fleshed-out, realistic setting.

Although small, seemingly nitpicky details greatly enhance the 2024 production, there are major, deeper choices that also strengthen this production. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s decision to have Leonato’s instinctual reaction be to protect and comfort his daughter by her side upon being slandered and rejected at the altar with his full heart not only adds depth and realism to his character, but also tugs on the audiences’ heartstrings and adds more emotion to the scene. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company made a few changes that surprised me, but this one by far took me aback. In the 2011 production, Leonato’s body language and half-heartedly delivered lines suggest he was confused and/or was already believing the lies spouting out of poor misinformed Claudio’s mouth; also, the 2011 performance was supposed to have a more contemporary and modern feel, but the act of Leonato immediately turning his back on his daughter and believing the men of high status instead of his kin doesn’t fit the timeframe. In Cincinnati Shakespeare’s production, they chose to have Leonato’s instinct to protect and comfort Hero before Don Pedro- who was also tricked- shares Claudio’s slander. This felt much more realistic and genuine: having Leonato hug Hero close to his chest and defend her with all he had before logic crushed everything else within him- it paints a much more layered, and logical picture of Leonato that the 2011 production, unfortunately, completely lacks.

In a nutshell, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing adds more energy, emotion, attention to details, and character depth which ranges from live interactions with the audience and live music to changing the staging to show how the characters feel.  By deliberately adding layers that required substantial effort, The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s enhanced the play, making the tense, emotional scenes downright breathtaking. This solidified their production as a standout rendition of Much Ado About Nothing. The portrayal of Leonato supporting Hero on instinct adds layers to his character, while the bravery of Hero’s friends by kicking Claudio because of his accusations further reinforce their characterization. This elevates the production to an astounding level of depth, in stark contrast to the dearth seen in the 2011 production. The interactions with the audience and the use of witty humor not only sustained audience engagement but also put a spotlight on the exceptional attention to detail the cast and director have- and, at the end of the day, the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company produced a wonderful performance with layered characters and a beautiful set, all of which entrapped the audience’s attention from beginning to end.