Nottingham Shakespeare Company is to stage free, open-air productions of Much Ado About Nothing around Nottinghamshire and will also take the play to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s open-air venue The Dell in Stratford.
Emma Carlton and Christopher Collins, familiar to audiences from NSC’s 2022 production of The Comedy of Errors, will play Beatrice and Benedick. Newcomer Grace Deavall and assistant director Alastair Fiori-McPhee will play Hero and Claudio.
Bronwyn K Crooks joins the company as the villainous Don John. She will be joined by company regulars Jonathan Mansfield as henchman Borachio and Richard Young as Hero’s father Leonato. The cast is completed by Kasia Cichocka and Toni Sherwood-Pearce.
Director Michelle-Louise Wright said, “our ensemble is stuffed full of stellar talent with new faces and old favourites giving amazing performances all round. Every rehearsal has me in stitches or welling up with tears in equal measure. You can’t get better than Much Ado About Nothing in the summer sunshine in and around Nottingham this July.”
The performances will start at Bulwell Arts Festival on Sunday 2 July at 2PM and continue until Sunday 20 August when NSC performs at The Dell, Stratford at 12 noon and 3PM.
The full list of dates is available at the Nottingham Shakespeare Company web site.