Much Ado About Nothing & The Winter’s Tale

Director’s Notes

Much Ado About Nothing and The Winter’s Tale are from different phases of Shakespeare’s career and vary dramatically in terms of language and tone. Much Ado About Nothing penned around 1598 as Shakespeare was coming into his great middle period is nearly three quarters prose and despite a few very heavy scenes is regarded as one of his best comedies. The Winter’s Tale written around 1611 is one of Shakespeare’s last plays, often categorized as a romance, and is nearly three quarters verse. Much Ado About Nothing takes place almost entirely in Messina and though many of the characters have long histories with each other, the events of the play take less than a week to transpire. The Winter’s Tale combines high drama with high comedy and the two countries it’s set in – Sicilia and Bohemia – nearly belong to different plays. The Winter’s Tale famously has Time as a character and there is a sixteen-year time jump in the middle of the show. Now comes the moment that I tell you these wildly different plays have a lot in common. Well, they do. Both plots are fueled by jealousy and there’s a great deal of misogynist haranguing of the ingénues by father figures. Both plots culminate in magical moments of repair and possibility. These are stories of second chances, and it has been a great pleasure to spend time with these characters in the worlds of Messina, Sicilia, and Bohemia.