Much Ado About Nothing: Plain and Simple William Shakespeare 's Much Ado About Nothing is a quick-witted tale that follows the romantic relationships of two cousins, through the comedic highs and tragic downs. It has been portrayed countless times, including Kenneth Branagh 's film adaptation in 1993. The film featured Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, and even Branagh himself; set in Messina, Italy; just like the original play. Overall, the casting choices and design choices the production team made worked out successfully, quickly turning many Shakespeare nay-sayers into believers. The story of Much Ado About Nothing is a slightly complex but entertaining one. Don Pedro, along with a posse of fellow soldiers such as Claudio and Benedick, visits the governor of Messina after triumphantly winning a war against Don John, who is the half-brother of Don Pedro. This is when Claudio finds affection for the governor 's daughter Hero, and successfully becomes engaged to her. All the while, Benedick and Beatrice (Hero 's cousin) are fooled into a relationship as well after the other 's devise a plan to trick them. However, the play takes a turn for the worse, when Don John starts devising a plan to ruin Hero and Claudio 's wedding. The night before the ceremony, one of Don John 's followers sleeps with one of Hero 's attendants, who is …show more content…
At its core, Much Ado About Nothing is an outstanding play, and one of my personal favorites. Seeing it on both the stage and screen helped me formulate this review, and helped me decide that the choices the production team made were indeed successful. Of the actors chosen, most understood their character, and of the design elements chosen, most added to the story rather than subtracted. In the spirit of the play, I would rate this work 13 out of 15 OSFs, short for Oregon Shakespeare Festival (which is where I first saw this play performed), because no tribute to Shakespeare would be complete without the mention of this