Much Ado About Nothing | Bard on the Beach | BMO Mainstage | June 10 – September 20, 2025
The transformative power of love is on full display in this new staging of Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Johnna Wright. Additional text by Erin Sheilds is seamlessly added in a final scene to provide a modern ending that more realistically aligns with today’s values.
Jennifer Lines is back as the smart and stubborn Beatrice, engaging in a “merry war” of banter with Benedick (Sheldon Elter). Lines’ sunny smile and breezy delivery add a certain lightness to the role and to the production overall. She’s a joy to watch. Elter’s Benedick matches her tone well, and he has some great comedic moments, especially when he’s hiding in a well to try to hear how Beatrice feels about him.
Likewise, Beatrice climbing down a trellis to catch a conversation between Hero and Ursula, who are discussion Benedick’s feelings, is hilarious physical comedy. Swinging her legs back and forth as she tries to climb back up without being seen, the audience was in fits of laughter.
The banter between Beatrice and Benedick is the most entertaining part of Much Ado, for example when Beatrice says, “I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick, nobody marks you.” and Benedick replies, “What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?” When Beatrice and Benedick dance together at a masquerade, it becomes clear that their passionate banter may reflect more than general dislike towards each other.
“I am not as I have been,” says Benedick after finding out how Beatrice feels about him. He is transformed. As Hero (Jennifer Tong) says to Ursula (Jennifer Clement), “Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.” Although there is an element of deception in bringing the couple together, Beatrice and Benedick become transformed by love, and we revel in witnessing them allowing themselves to be taken away with it.
There are many moments of laugh out loud comedy, including when various characters put a stop to something before it goes too far, and look at the audience to say, “It’s a comedy!”
Scott Bellis’ performance of Constable Dogberry is spot on and full of nuance. At the same time as we’re laughing at him, he’s endeared to us, and we feel for him. As the leads ‘the watch,’ a group of bumbling idiots, he delivers many malapropisms, such as when he says they have “comprehended two auspicious knaves.” He’s also capable of making jokes on purpose, such as his advice about catching a thief: “the most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is to let him show himself what he is and steal out of your company.”
In contrast with Beatrice who seems to resist love, Hero openly embraces it. She is smitten with Claudio (Angus Yam), but their courtship is complicated by Don John who convinces Claudio that Hero has been unfaithful. The way she is publicly shamed on their wedding day is unconscionable. The new text in the final scene provides a way for audiences to come to terms with these events, and a way for Hero to respond in a more realistic way. I won’t spoil it for you; this is something you should experience for yourself. Let it transform you.
