“All the world’s a stage” and Elora Community Theatre’s (ECT) stage this summer for its third annual Shakespeare in the Park will be Elora’s Bissell Park off Mill Street East by the Grand River.
This year marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and ECT is offering two of his plays this summer in his honour. ECT’s first play Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Deb Stanson and David Tanner, runs July 15 to 17 and the 22 to 24.
The second Shakespearean play The Tempest will also be performed by ECT in Bissell Park later on this summer from Aug. 26 to 28 and Sept. 2 to 4 and will be directed by Denise Gismondi.
Launching the 2016-17 season, Much Ado About Nothing is often considered one of Shakespeare’s best comedies.
Although this summer version of the play is shortened, it maintains the integrity of the plot.
The production features music, dance, comedy and drama. Much Ado About Nothing gives the audience one of Shakespeare’s wittiest comedy of words, loyalty and the search for love, ECT officials state.
Audience members are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, water bottles, blankets and take in this romantic comedy that has been abridged for summer fare but still leads down the garden path of love with all its twists and turns, – beautiful but painful when thorns block the way.
The war in the battlefield is over but the war between Beatrice and Benedick has just begun. The young couple Hero and Claudio believes nothing can damage their love. Beatrice and Benedick believe nothing would ever make them fall in love.
But their friends are determined to unlock the desire that they believe lies buried in hearts of the would-be lovers.
Love is the victim when gossip and lies are the weapons and events take an abrupt turn, plunging from comedy to tragedy as the sinister intrigues of Don John threaten to tear lovers and friends apart.
The lives of lovers young and old intertwine in a story of betrayal and trickery – but in the end love conquers all.
Directed by Deb Stanson and David Tanner, the show features a cast of 19 from Wellington County and Waterloo Region.
Much Ado About Nothing runs July 15 to 17 and 22 to 24; Fridays at 7pm, Saturdays at 2 and 4pm and Sundays at 2 and 4pm.
Admission by donation.
