Much Ado About Nothing

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Last night I attended Petra Academy's play, Much Ado About Nothing.  My fiancé was offered tickets through his job and jumped at the chance to take me to the theater while I was studying Shakespeare.  (I also believe he didn't want to disappoint the Plant Manager whose son was in the play, but that's neither here nor there.)  


The often performed and much loved play encompasses all of SP's usual antics...love, marriage, someone dressing up as someone else, a villain, a tragedy, and then a happy ending.  Naturally the play consists of much more substance than that, and was quite entertaining, but you get my point.  I had never before attended a SP play and was eager to find out if the performance lent itself to an easier understanding of the language.  Indeed, watching and listening to the play was much easier than reading from the thin pages of our book.  The students (ranging from 7th-12th grade) did a marvelous job and the laughter often filled the theater.  I suggest reading this play at the very least, and when the time again comes you should attempt to see it performed.


After the performance ended we headed to Ale Works and much to my delight the fiancé began speaking about some of the same variables that we talk about in class.  Now don't get me wrong, Kyle is an astoundingly intelligent man, but his thoughts typically center around science and engineering.  We talked about the play within the play and the mythology behind much of SP's writing.  Speaking of Mythology...I laughed aloud as the characters compared their lives to that of Hercules labours...something I just educated myself about during a section my practicum students at Manhattan High were studying.  I don't believe that much of the audience caught on to the mythology references (and I am sure to have missed many), but that just furthers the point that everyone can enjoy Shakespeare.  Frye says that SP simply "allows his audience to have fun" and indeed Petra Academy's performance of "Much Ado About Nothing" allowed just that.