19:45, Tue 1st – Sat 5th February 2011 at Cambridge Arts Theatre
14:30, Thu 3rd February 2011 at Cambridge Arts Theatre
14:30, Sat 5th February 2011 at Cambridge Arts Theatre
Lent Week 2

Come and bask in the Mediterranean warmth of one of Shakespeare's most glowing comedies. Much Ado About Nothing offers an orange of a plot, with an abundance of comic zest and some sour pips in the middle, but a sweet resolution. It's a feisty few rounds of the eternal battle of the sexes.

For the romantically inept Beatrice and Benedick, the course of true love is bulldozed through by a practical joke; for the more conventional Claudio and Hero, it is almost tragically blasted off course by a spiteful subterfuge. The storm almost threatens to shatter the teacup, and it takes the halfwit Dogberry, a buffoon of a local law enforcement official, to almost unwittingly save the day.

NT Director Carl Heap will bring to the play his experience of producing pre-Shakespearean theatre for his groundbreaking touring company The Medieval Players. He sees Shakespeare not so much as literary heritage, but as a talented heir to the pre-Shakespearean traditions of popular theatre.