-
[55] The cast also includes Literature[edit] In 2016, Lily Anderson released the young adult novel The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You, a modern adaptation of Much Ado About
Nothing whose main characters, Trixie Watson and Ben West, attend a “school for geniuses”. -
[citation needed] In 2006 the American Music Theatre Project produced The Boys Are Coming Home,[42] a musical adaptation by Berni Stapleton and Leslie Arden that sets Much
Ado About Nothing in America during the Second World War. -
[citation needed] Don John plays upon Claudio’s pride and fear of cuckoldry, leading to the disastrous first wedding.
-
In Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 film, Balthasar sings it beautifully: it is given a prominent role in the opening and finale, and the women seem to embrace its message.
-
[6][25][26] The title can also be understood as Much Ado About Noting: much of the action centres on interest in others and critique of others, written messages, spying, and
eavesdropping. -
[44][45] Film[edit] The first cinematic version in English may have been the 1913 silent film directed by Phillips Smalley.
-
[citation needed] • 1965: A National Theatre production directed by Franco Zeffirelli with Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave, Albert Finney, Michael
York and Derek Jacobi among others • 1965: A Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word or Drama Recording nomination went to a recording of a National Theatre production with Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens • 1973: A Tony Award Nomination for “Best
Featured Actor in a Play” went to Barnard Hughes as Dogberry in the New York Shakespeare Festival production. -
The second, between Claudio’s friend Benedick and Hero’s cousin Beatrice, takes centre stage as the play continues, with both characters’ wit and banter providing much of
the humour. -
[citation needed] John Gielgud made Benedick one of his signature roles between 1931 and 1959, playing opposite Diana Wynyard, Peggy Ashcroft, and Margaret Leighton.
-
[citation needed] Infidelity[edit] Several characters seem obsessed with the idea that a man cannot know whether his wife is faithful and that women can take full advantage
of this. -
Don Pedro’s last line can be understood to mean ‘Pay attention to your music and nothing else!’
-
Performance history The play was very popular in its early decades and continues to be one of Shakespeare’s most performed plays.
-
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.
-
[1] The play was included in the First Folio, published in 1623.
-
[23] Deception[edit] Beatrice, Hero and Ursula, John Jones, after Henry Fuseli (c. 1771) The play has many examples of deception and self-deception.
-
in which Benedick plays on the word post as a pole and as mail delivery in a joke reminiscent of Shakespeare’s earlier advice ‘Don’t shoot the messenger’; and (2.3.138–142)
Claudio: Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a pretty jest your daughter told us of. -
[27] • 1960: A Tony Award Nomination for “Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play” went to Margaret Leighton for her role played in Much Ado.
-
Friar: Hear me a little, For I have only been silent so long And given way unto this course of fortune By noting of the lady.
-
[56] In 2017, Mckelle George released a YA adaptation, Speak Easy, Speak Love, in which the play’s events take place in the 1920s, focused around a failing speakeasy.
-
[18] Charles I wrote, ‘Benedick and Beatrice’ beside the title of the play in his copy of the Second Folio.
-
[citation needed] An earlier BBC television version with Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens, adapted from Franco Zeffirelli’s stage production for the National Theatre Company’s
London stage production, was broadcast in February 1967. -
Another motif is the play on the words nothing and noting.
-
“Much Ado About Nothing”, Act IV, Scene 2, the Examination of Conrade and Borachio (from the Boydell series), Robert Smirke (n.d.) On the night of Don John’s treachery, the
local Watch overheard Borachio and Conrade discussing their “treason”[5] and “most dangerous piece of lechery that ever was known in the commonwealth”,[5] and arrested them therefore. -
[31] • 1931: John Gielgud played Benedick for the first time at the Old Vic Theatre, and it stayed in his repertory until 1959.
-
[29] The great 19th-century stage team Henry Irving and Ellen Terry counted Benedick and Beatrice as their greatest triumph.
-
They are considered the leading roles even though their relationship is given equal or lesser weight in the script than Claudio’s and Hero’s situation.
-
[33] • 2011: Eve Best appeared as Beatrice and Charles Edwards as Benedick at Shakespeare’s Globe, directed by Jeremy Herrin.
-
Television and web series[edit] There have been several screen adaptations of Much Ado About Nothing, almost all of them made for television.
-
Many of the men readily believe that Hero is impure; even her father condemns her with very little evidence.
-
[57] In 2018, Molly Booth released a summer YA novel adaptation, Nothing Happened, in which Claudio and Hero are a queer couple, Claudia and Hana.
-
Characters • Benedick, a lord and soldier from Padua; companion of Don Pedro • Beatrice, niece of Leonato • Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon • Don John, “the Bastard Prince”, brother
of Don Pedro • Claudio, of Florence; a count, companion of Don Pedro, friend to Benedick • Leonato, governor of Messina; Hero’s father • Antonio, brother of Leonato • Balthasar, attendant on Don Pedro, a singer • Borachio, follower of Don
John • Conrade, follower of Don John • Innogen, a ‘ghost character’ in early editions as Leonato’s wife • Hero, daughter of Leonato • Margaret, waiting-gentlewoman attendant on Hero • Ursula, waiting-gentlewoman attendant on Hero • Dogberry,
the constable in charge of Messina’s night watch • Verges, the Headborough, Dogberry’s partner • Friar Francis, a priest • a Sexton, the judge of the trial of Borachio • a Boy, serving Benedick • The Watch, watchmen of Messina • Attendants
and Messengers Synopsis In Messina, a messenger brings news that Don Pedro will return that night from a successful battle, along with Claudio and Benedick. -
[citation needed] An adaptation is the 1973 New York Shakespeare Festival production by Joseph Papp, shot on videotape and released on VHS and DVD, that includes more of the
text than Branagh’s version. -
The games and tricks played on people often have the best intentions: to make people fall in love, to help someone get what they want, or to lead someone to realize their
mistake. -
[53] The 2014 YouTube web series Nothing Much to Do is a modern retelling of the play, set in New Zealand.
-
John Gielgud and Margaret Leighton in the 1959 Broadway production of Much Ado About Nothing After the theatres reopened during the Restoration, Sir William Davenant staged
The Law Against Lovers (1662), which inserted Beatrice and Benedick into an adaptation of Measure for Measure. -
[citation needed] The first sound version in English released to cinemas was the highly acclaimed 1993 film by Kenneth Branagh.
-
Sources Shakespeare’s immediate source may have been one of Matteo Bandello of Mantua’s Novelle (“Tales”), possibly the translation into French by François de Belleforest,[6]
which dealt with the tribulations of Sir Timbreo and his betrothed Fenicia Lionata, in Messina, after Peter III of Aragon’s defeat of Charles of Anjou. -
The title track of the 2009 Mumford & Sons album Sigh No More uses quotes from this play in the song.
-
In contrast, Balthasar’s song “Sigh No More” tells women to accept men’s infidelity and continue to live joyfully.
-
It seems that comic drama could be a means of calming such anxieties.
-
[24] Taken literally, the title implies that a great fuss (‘much ado’) is made of something insignificant (‘nothing’), such as the unfounded claims of Hero’s infidelity and
that Benedick and Beatrice are in love with each other. -
[30] Jacobi had also played Benedick in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s highly praised 1982 production, with Sinéad Cusack playing Beatrice.
-
[27] Director Terry Hands produced the play on a stage-length mirror against an unchanging backdrop of painted trees.
-
[36] • 2019: Danielle Brooks as Beatrice and Grantham Coleman as Benedick with an all-Black cast set in contemporary Georgia, at The Public Theater, directed by Kenny Leon.
-
[27] Actors, theatres, and awards[edit] Print of Ellen Terry as Beatrice and Henry Irving as Benedick in an 1887 performance of the play • c. 1598: In the original production
by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, William Kempe played Dogberry and Richard Cowley played Verges. -
Benedick: Ho, now you strike like the blind man – ’twas the boy that stole your meat, and you’ll beat the post.
-
[52] In 2005, the BBC adapted the story by setting it in the modern-day studios of Wessex Tonight, a fictional regional news programme, as part of the ShakespeaRe-Told season,
with Damian Lewis, Sarah Parish, and Billie Piper. -
Benedick and Beatrice quickly became the main interest of the play.
-
[citation needed] In 2015, Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the music for a rock opera adaptation of the play, These Paper Bullets, which was written by Rolin Jones.
-
1898) by Paul Puget and Much Ado About Nothing by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1901) are based upon the play.
-
-
Remorseful and thinking Hero dead, Claudio agrees to her father’s demand that he marry Antonio’s daughter, “almost the copy of my child that’s dead”.
-
[49] The 2023 romantic comedy Anyone But You directed by Will Gluck and co-written by Ilana Wolpert,[50][51] and starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell as analogues of Beatrice
and Benedick, is a loose adaptation principally set in contemporary Australia. -
[11] Date and text According to the earliest printed text, Much Ado About Nothing was “sundry times publicly acted” before 1600.
-
[20] This was reflected and emphasized in certain plays of the period but was also challenged.
-
Swooning of Hero in the Church scene by Alfred Elmore The next day, at the wedding, Claudio denounces Hero before the stunned guests and storms off with Don Pedro.
-
The play is set in Messina and revolves around two romantic pairings that emerge when a group of soldiers arrive in the town.
-
[27] David Garrick first played Benedick in 1748 and continued to play him until 1776.
-
[34] • The official poster for the 2011 production starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate • 2011: David Tennant as Benedick alongside Catherine Tate as Beatrice in a production
of the play at the Wyndham’s Theatre, directed by Josie Rourke.
Works Cited
[‘1. See textual notes to Much Ado About Nothing in The Norton Shakespeare (W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ISBN 0-393-97087-6) p. 1387
2. ^ McEachern, Claire, ed. (2016). “Introduction”. Much Ado About Nothing. The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series (2nd
revised ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-903436-83-7.
3. ^ Zitner, Sheldon P., ed. (2008). Much Ado About Nothing. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 131–132. ISBN 978-0-19-953611-5.
4. ^ Jump up to:a b
“Much Ado About Nothing: Act 1, Scene 1”. shakespeare-navigators.com. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
5. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g “Much Ado About Nothing: Entire Play”. shakespeare.mit.edu. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
6. ^ Jump up to:a b c Rasmussen, Eric;
Bate, Jonathan (2007). “Much Ado About Nothing”. The RSC Shakespeare: the complete works. New York: Macmillan. p. 257. ISBN 978-0-230-00350-7.
7. ^ Gordon, D. J. (1942). “”Much Ado about Nothing”: A Possible Source for the Hero-Claudio Plot”. Studies
in Philology. 39 (2): 279–290. ISSN 0039-3738. JSTOR 4172572 – via JSTOR.
8. ^ Gaw, Allison (1935). “Is Shakespeare’s Much Ado a Revised Earlier Play?”. PMLA. 50 (3): 715–738. doi:10.2307/458213. ISSN 0030-8129. JSTOR 458213. S2CID 163471928 –
via JSTOR.
9. ^ Evans, G. Blakemore (1997). “Much Ado about Nothing”. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 361. ISBN 0-395-85822-4.
10. ^ Dusinberre, Juliet (1998). “Much Ado About Lying”. In Marrapodi, Michele (ed.). The Italian
world of English Renaissance drama: cultural exchange and intertextuality. Newark: University of Delaware Press. p. 244. ISBN 0-87413-638-5.
11. ^ Harrison, GB, ed. (1968). “Much Ado About Nothing introduction”. Shakespeare: the Complete Works.
New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. p. 697. ISBN 0-15-580530-4.
12. ^ David M. Bergeron, The Duke of Lennox, 1574–1624: A Jacobean Courtier’s Life (Edinburgh, 2022), pp. 108–9.
13. ^ “Much Ado About Nothing, first edition”. Shakespeare Documented.
Retrieved 25 February 2023.
14. ^ Goff, Moira. “Much Ado About Nothing – Shakespeare in quarto”. www.bl.uk. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
15. ^ “Much Ado About Nothing: Entire Play”. Shakespeare.mit.edu. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
16. ^ A. R.
Humphreys, ed. (1981). Much Ado About Nothing. Arden Edition.
17. ^ Bate, Jonathan (2008). Soul of the Age: the Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare. London: Viking. p. 305. ISBN 978-0-670-91482-1.
18. ^ “British Library”. www.bl.uk. Retrieved
25 February 2023.
19. ^ G. Blakemore Evans, The Riverside Shakespeare, Houghton Mifflin, 1974; p. 327.
20. ^ “The Spectre of Marriage: Gender Discomfort in Much Ado About Nothing”.
21. ^ Jump up to:a b c McEachern, Much Ado About Nothing, Arden;
3rd edition, 2005.
22. ^ Amussen, Ordered Society, Columbia University Press (15 April 1994).
23. ^ Deleyto, Celestino (1997). “Men in Leather: Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado about Nothing and Romantic Comedy”. Cinema Journal. 36 (3). University
of Texas Press: 91–105. doi:10.2307/1225677. JSTOR 1225677.
24. ^ See Stephen Greenblatt’s introduction to Much Ado about Nothing in The Norton Shakespeare (W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ISBN 0-393-97087-6), p. 1383.
25. ^ See Gordon Williams
A Glossary of Shakespeare’s Sexual Language (Athlone Press, 1997 ISBN 0-485-12130-1) at p. 219: “As Shakespeare’s title ironically acknowledges, vagina and virginity are a nothing causing Much Ado.”
26. ^ Dexter, Gary (13 February 2011). “Title
Deed: How the Book Got its Name”. The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022.
27. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Kathryn Prince, “Performance History”, in Much Ado About Nothing: A Critical Reader, edited
by Deborah Cartmell and Peter J. Smith (Bloomsbury, 2018).
28. ^ F. E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Baltimore, Penguin, 1964, pp. 326 f.
29. ^ Jump up to:a b Gertrude Carr-Davison, “Beatrice and Hero”, The Theatre (1 December 1881),
p. 331.
30. ^ Genzlinger, Neil (10 February 2020). “Terry Hands, Director Known for Hits and ‘Carrie,’ Dies at 79”. New York Times. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
31. ^ “Much Ado About Nothing”, The Theatre (1 November 1882), p. 294.
32. ^ Somerset,
Alan (3 January 2019). “Much Ado About Nothing (1987, Stratford Festival of Canada)”. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
33. ^ “Theatre review: Much Ado About Nothing / Olivier, London”. The Guardian.
19 December 2007. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
34. ^ Spencer, Charles (30 May 2011). “Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare’s Globe, review”. The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022.
35. ^ Cavendish, Dominic (10
May 2011). “David Tennant and Catherine Tate interview for ‘Much Ado About Nothing'”. The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
36. ^ “Much Ado About Nothing review – Mel Giedroyc blazes
through Great Sicilian Bake Off”. The Guardian. 19 April 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
37. ^ Mackenzie Nichols (11 June 2019). “Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ Gets a 21st Century Makeover”. Variety.
38. ^ Thomas, Dillon (14 September
2022). “‘Much Ado About Nothing’ gets a modern take at DCPA”. KCNC-TV. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
39. ^ Nestruk, J. Kelly (17 June 2023). “Stratford Festival: Much Ado About Nothing is really something else with a little Shields added to the Shakespeare”.
The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
40. ^ Daly, Karina, Tom Walsh’s Opera: A history of the Wexford Festival, 1951–2004, Four Courts, 2004. ISBN 1-85182-878-8; the Workpage for Puget’s opera at IMSLP.
41. ^ ^Jeremy Nicholas. Booklet
notes to Hyperion CDA67165
42. ^ Simonson, Robert. “Cast Set for Gary Griffin-Directed The Boys Are Coming Home, at Northwestern’s American Music Theatre Project” Archived 5 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine. 28 May 2008.
43. ^ “These Paper Bullets!/Nov
20, 2015 – Jan 10, 2016”. Atlantic Theater Company. Archived from the original on 16 January 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
44. ^ “Much Ado Opera Workshop | Repercussion Theatre”.
45. ^ “Much Ado! – 2019 – Festival • Opera NUOVA – Opera Training
& Events in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada”.
46. ^ “Much Ado About Nothing”. IMDb.
47. ^ Ramesh, Randeep (29 July 2006). “A matter of caste as Bollywood embraces the Bard”. Guardian. London. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
48. ^ “Much Ado About Nothing”.
Retrieved 23 October 2011.
49. ^ “Messina High”. 17 August 2015 – via IMDb.
50. ^ “Glen Powell on X”. 16 November 2023.
51. ^ Gates, Marya E. “Anyone But You movie review & film summary (2023) | Roger Ebert”. www.rogerebert.com. Retrieved 22
December 2023.
52. ^ “Dame Again. Early ‘lost’ Maggie Smith appearance painstakingly restored”. BBC. September 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
53. ^ “BBC updates Shakespeare”. The Guardian. 15 March 2005. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
54. ^
“Nothing Much to Do (TV Series 2014) – IMDB”. IMDB. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
55. ^ “All-black ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ brings Shakespeare into 21st century on PBS”. Boston Herald. 17 November 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
56. ^ “The Only Thing
Worse Than Me Is You”. Kirkus Reviews. 16 March 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
57. ^ “Speak Easy, Speak Love”. Harper Collins. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
58. ^ “Nothing Happened Molly’s second book is out now from Disney Hyperion!”. Molly Horton
Booth. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
59. ^ “Under a Dancing Star”. Goodreads. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
60. ^ “Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese: 9780593441503 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books”. PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
61. ^
Johannes V. Jensen (1950), Swift og Oehlenschläger (in Danish), Copenhagen: Gyldendal, p. 7, Wikidata Q108935398
\ Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/maureendidde/4521496161/’]