Much Ado About Nothing
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Reviewed by Aubrey Tarantino
If you’ve ever wanted to see Shakespeare brought to life with dazzling dance breaks, beautiful musical numbers, and an amazing upbeat energy that permeates throughout the entire audience, then you absolutely cannot miss this rendition of Much Ado About Nothing with the Shakespeare Festival of Dallas!
Shakespeare Dallas does a glorious job at making Shakespeare fun, exciting, and engaging. It would be hard not to have a fun time with the incredible cast that we saw on the stage. Much Ado About Nothing is a story of love that’s set in a comedy. Throughout the play we see two couples come together, break apart, and then come back together again.
The first of these is the relationship between Beatrice, played by Nicole Berastequi, and Signior Benedick, played by Marcus Stimac. Berastequi brings Beatrice to life like I’ve never seen before. The lines just roll off her tongue as if they are natural to her, and she breathes such life into the character that it’s easy for the audience to understand exactly what she’s thinking and feeling. Her love interest, played by Stimac, is just as commanding. Stimac delivers each line exactly how you would want Shakespeare to be spoken, as if it were just the plain English we all speak every day. Watching these two together is so much fun and they both bring Shakespeare to life in an incredibly engaging way. The other couple we follow throughout the show is Hero, played by Thi Le, and Count Claudio, played by Caleb de la Torre. Both Le and Torre are wonderful to watch on stage. They play their respective roles in such a way that the audience can feel the emotions with them.
This cast is large, and that’s because so much is happening in this play. Two standouts for the audience, though, are Claire Parry, who plays Ursula/Seacoal and Emiliano Pliego, who plays Balthasar. Parry is so dynamic on stage and is the embodiment of joy in many instances. Then Pliego is simply quirky in the best way possible. The way Pliego plays Balthasar is iconic and he has an amazing stage presence that everyone in the audience loved. Additionally, there was a great bit with audience interaction that you wouldn’t normally expect to see in Shakespearean production with a shine and sparkle that engaged all of the senses in the best way possible. Trust me when I say that this is one Shakespeare play you do not want to miss. For ticket information, visit https://www.shakespearedallas.org/
Audience Rating: PG-13, sexual innuendo
Accessible Seating: Available.
Hearing Devices: Not available.
Sensory Friendly Performance: Not Available
Production Sound Level: comfortable – though it is outdoors which can disperse sound, so may not be comfortable for all. The actors project well, though.
Noises or Visuals to Prepare For: None
Be Well,
Aubrey
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