I have watched films of Much Ado About Nothing, I have read it three times and have seen it in North America’s largest repertory theatre festival. Yet out of all of that, this performance has chiseled itself as being entirely unique and one of NMU’s best theatre performances I have seen to date.

For those looking to get a ticket, they are going fast and are nearly sold out. The show will be premiering on Thursday, February 20 and go through the 22. Then again it will show on Thursday, February 27 and go through March 1.

The setting is what initially drew me in to the play. Shakespeare set in a ‘second week of deer camp’ in the Upper Peninsula really caught my attention as a Yooper. The set and costumes, which the latter will be talked about later, were meticulous and made me feel like I was at my grandpa’s house or my deer camp. It was all portrayed in the interactive and small stage at the Black Box. The setting caught me, but what kept me was the performance.

The performance hit every note that Much Ado About Nothing should hit. It had the witty exchange and romance of Beatrice and Benedict. It had the troubled relationship of Hero and Claudio. It had the overly evil Don Jon with the mastermind Borachio, and the slapstick comedy of Dogberry and his troop. I was pleasantly surprised to see Act 5 Scene 3 have some presence in the play, as I have yet to see it staged yet. Those are all necessary for a baseline Much Ado play, what made this stand out were the details around it.

Costuming is one of the most vital parts of a stage play, and the more in depth the better. Costume Designer Charlotte Sommerville, really outdid herself. I can relate with the troop of Don Pedro and their hunting gear, and loved the fanciful outfits of Leonato’s family. The symbolism in the costumes were prominent and amazing. One aspect was the blue and white worn by Hero at the wedding and the red and black worn by Margaret, which highlights the innocence of one over the other, not to mention the over the top outfits for Don Pedro, Borachio and Conrade.

A photo of the Much Ado About Nothing Cast on a cast board outside the Black Box Theatre. (Antonio Anderson)

Another aspect I loved was the acting. I am familiar with a majority of this cast, as many were in the 2023 performance “Salome”. Almost every performance was one I loved. Samuel McKnight and Maya Moreau portrayed an amazing Benedict and Beatrice. What sold me was when Beatrice asked her lover to kill Claudio, she channeled a palpable rage and anguish, along with the paragon of witty banter throughout. They were not the only key pair. Miles Nowlin and Rhea Bar-Ziv took their roles as Don John and Borachio to a level I had not expected on a collegiate stage. Nowlin portrayed a great comedic emo who wanted to lash out and Bar-Ziv was the most evil Borachio I have yet seen. Claudio and Hero played by Phillip Smith and Sophia Zavala was a very solid performance. During the false wedding I was completely enthralled by the churning emotions of shock, anger, embarrassment and sadness. Michael Ahlstrom as Dogberry and his troop had me laughing throughout, which really cut the dramatic tensions, and I loved the Finnish speaking character of Jorma Kaukonen played by Logan Newcomb. All the other roles were filled by very proficient actors and they did an amazing job. There was no bad performance.

I have very few notes for the performance. When Don Pedro was handed a gun by Benedict, he had very little care for when it was aimed at other actors on stage. That broke some immersion for me, as playing a hunter and being uncareful with a gun was very out of character. Though this can be taken as a compliment of the actors, set, and stage of the performance for drawing me in so much. But, regarding the gun I was a little disappointed that it was not fired during one of the plays altercations, a kind of Chekhov’s Gun situation, though it did fit with the setting of deer camp but I was still disappointed nonetheless.

Overall the performance is one I will remember for years to come, and I am left with truly one notable regret. It is that NMU isn’t selling a recording of it, because this is honestly something I want to watch over again and again.