Much Ado About Nothing is, arguably, one of Shakespeare's more famous plays and enjoys a good reputation. The English Drama Group had already performed Much Ado once two and a half years before and Elke managed to re-activate most of the cast.

The main trouble with this year's Much Ado was that one female lead was abroad and wouldn't come back to Trier before a month into rehearsals and one male lead didn't exist yet. The result was a fairly chopped-up rehearsal schedule due to the effort put into rehearsing scenes that didn't need stand-ins.

 

Once the male lead had been cast and the female lead returned to the group, rehearsals could start in earnest - this was the end of October, performances being slated for the end of December.

 

While much of the directing duties were simply "freshening up" the "old scenes" for those actors who had already done the play before - especially the scenes involving just Benedick and Beatrice - all the scenes involving new actors had to be redone entirely. Due to the spotty nature of the initial rehearsal schedule, the play came together very late in the game, but all the more beautifully.

 

While Elke handled most of the directing, Christoph directed a scene involving the ever-blundering Watch, in which he also made an appearance of his own.

 

This rendition of Much Ado was all the more special as Norbert Platz, University Professor for English Literature and honorary member of the English Drama Group, arranged two guest performances for us at the Theatre National Luxembourg in late December, which were absolutely marvellous - playing in a real theater with real changing rooms and the likes was a new experience for all of us.

The production was furthermore made extra special due to the live music used - vocals by Lisa, using lyrics by Shakespeare, and original compositions by Lukas on the guitar and Sigrid on the piano.

 

Our poster for this production was once again made by Sigrid. One of the Luxembourg performances was filmed by Sebastian Manns, Sariana's husband, and can be obtained on DVD by simply asking us via the contact page at the top. The DVD cover can be downloaded here.

 

Much Ado was our first play performed at the Produktion am Dom after our appearances at the Theatre National Luxembourg. There were six performances altogether: December 19^th (Tuesday) and 20^th (Wednesday) at the TNL and January 31^st (Wednesday), February 2^nd (Friday), 4^th (Sunday) and 7^th (Wednesday) in Trier.

 

 

 

We are in Messina, an Italian province, where hardly anything ever happens. Leonato (Sebastian), governor of Messina, lives a quite life on his estate with his sister Antonia (Victoria), his daughter Hero (Sigrid) and his niece (but not Antonia's daughter) Beatrice (Ulrike). Things get shaken up a bit, though, as a messenger  arrives and brings news of approaching visitors.

 

Don Pedro of Aragon (Bernd) has won a field campaign, assisted by two of his most trusted officers, Count Benedick of Padua (Immanuel) and Count Claudio of Florence (Thomas) and is now reconciled  with Lady Jane (Jessica), Don Pedro's illegitimate sister.

 

Upon meeting Hero again, Claudio is immediately stricken by her while Benedick resumes his usual war of wits with Beatrice, who is more than capable of holding her own. Claudio, insistent upon wooing Hero, asks for Don Pedro's help, but Lady Jane tries to disrupt the peace and love developing by planting a seed of doubt about Hero's virginity in Claudio's mind, though she fails: A wedding is planned.

 

As wedding preparations are made, Don Pedro, Leonato and Claudio conspire with Hero and her servants, Ursula (Sarah) and Margaret (Bozena) to bring Benedick and Beatrice together by "letting slip" in each one's presence in turn that they love one another, but could never admit such a thing.

 

All the while, Jane refuses to let the happiness go on. Borachio (Andreas), in an effort to please her, devises a plan involving him seducing Margaret but acting as though she was Hero. Claudio falls for the trick with Don Pedro as his witness and decides to shame Hero at the altar. As the wedding begins, Claudio does as threatened and storms off. Friar Francis (Manuel) presents a plan in which Hero must be hidden away and spoken of as dead until her innocence is proven. Beatrice convinces Benedick to take revenge for her cousin in challenging Claudio to a duel - to the death.

 

In the following night, Borachio boasts to Silvia (Sariana) about what he did while drinking, not realizing that the blundering watch (Daniela, Christiane, Lukas, Verena), as instructed by Master Constable Dogberry (Christoph), is watching all the while.

 

The result is a culmination of revelations in which Claudio must come to terms with the mistake he made or face up to the awaiting challenge made by Benedick and pray that he may be forgiven by those he wronged and spoke ill of.