<HTML><HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000">
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">OSF’s ‘Much Ado’ is the Bard
at his comedic best</FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN></B> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"
align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"
align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Member, International Association of Theatre
Critics</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">I’m no stranger to “Much Ado About Nothing,” but after
seeing the Ohio Shakespeare Festival’s current production I feel as if I’ve
finally seen this romantic comedy as it was meant to be seen.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">The story is set in the idyllic Italian town of Messina
in the late-16<SUP>th</SUP> century, where we are invited into the home of
Leonato (Robert Hawkes), a respectable nobleman living with his lovely young
daughter, Hero (Tess Burgler), his sharp-tongued niece, Beatrice (Lara
Mielcarek), and his brother, Antonio (Jim Fippin).</FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">They are visited by soldiers returning from war,
including Don Pedro (David McNees), who is a close friend of Leonato’s, the
earnest Lord Claudio (Joe Pine), the self-possessed Lord Benedick (Bernard
Bygott), the malcontented Don John (Jason Leupold), and their assorted
companions.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Soon, Claudio falls in
love with Hero and Hero with Claudio, and nothing seems capable of keeping them
apart, though Don John tries mightily.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Benedick hates Beatrice and Beatrice hates Benedick, and nothing seems
capable of bringing them together, though their friends have other
plans.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Recently, I attended a Bollywood-inspired version of this
play that was set in India and opened with a b<SPAN
style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in">haratanatyam</SPAN>
dance accompanied by the Elizabethan song “Sigh No More, Ladies” translated into
Hindi. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%">Before
that I saw a Great Lakes </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ">Theater production
that transported its characters to the end of World War I. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">I’ve also seen the play
turned into a<SPAN
style="BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%">
black and white indie film set in modern-day California as well as an
overproduced Hollywood movie overstuffed with A-listers like Denzel Washington
as Don Pedro, Emma Thompson as Beatrice, Kenneth Branagh as Benedick, and Keanu
Reeves as Don John.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">The play’s prevalence of accessible prose rather than the
poetic verse that typically dominates Shakespeare’s comedies has no doubt
encouraged these many inventive manifestations of the work.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman">The absence of absurd Shakespearean conventions like
cross-gender twins and interfering fairies make room for such folly as Bollywood
and Keanu Reeves.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">But the OSF production
demonstrates that this brilliant play plays best as written – that is, <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>set in the 16<SUP>th</SUP> century,
performed live, and occurring in a space similar to where it was conceived: a
small-scale, Elizabethan-style stage under a canopy of stars<SPAN
style="BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%">.</SPAN>
</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ">And under Terry Burgler’s
unabashedly playful direction, this </SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>“Much Ado
About Nothing” </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ">is the joyous affair one
imagines being performed in the open-air playhouse in London that, in 1599,
would become the Globe.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></SPAN></FONT><SPAN lang=CS
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: cs'></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; tab-stops: 1.0in 5.25in"><SPAN
lang=CS
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: cs'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 12pt"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">For the rest of this review, go to:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT><A
style='href: "http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/"'><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; LINE-HEIGHT: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"
color=#0000ff>http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/</FONT></SPAN></A></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; tab-stops: 1.0in 5.25in"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"></FONT> </P></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>