Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse to Stage MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING in March 2026
Join the cast and crew for a free post show Q&A Sunday March 15, 2026.
The Atlanta Shakespeare Company at The Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse will present Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Kati Grace Kirby. The show runs March 7-April 4, 2026.
Will Benedick, the ever-confirmed bachelor, admit his love for the equally witty and equally independent Beatrice? Will the young lovers Claudio and Hero survive the devious meddling of others? What do you want to bet there will be two weddings in the end?
Join the cast and crew for a free post show Q&A Sunday March 15, 2026.
Cast
Antonio & Dogberry - Clark Taylor
Leonato - Jeff Watkins
Beatrice - Tiffany Porter (Understudy going on April 3 & 4)
Hero - Lauren Garcia
Don Pedro & Sexton - Tyren Duncan
Don John & Verges - Cory Phelps
Benedick - Justin Walker
Claudio - Adam King
Balthasar, Friar Francis & 2nd Watch - John Michael Hoke
Ursula & 3rd Watch - Brittany Smith
Margaret, Boy & 1st Watch - Shakoria Alexus
Borachio & Attendant - Evan Judway
Messenger & Conrade - Darcy Banfield-Jones
Synopsis
Leonato, Governor of Messina, is host to Don Pedro, the Prince of Arragon, who has come from suppressing a rebellion by his bastard brother, Don John. With Pedro are John, now “reconciled” to him; Claudio, a young Florentine lord, of whom John is bitterly resentful; and a Paduan lord, Benedick, said to be a confirmed bachelor and engaged in a “merry war” with Leonato's niece, Beatrice, apparently a confirmed spinster. Claudio loves Leonato's daughter, Hero; Don John swears to thwart him. After a masked ball the wedding of Claudio and Hero is planned. Borachio, Don John's follower, tells him that having seen that the Prince and Claudio are listening, he will exchange love vows by night with Hero's gentlewoman, dressed in her mistress's clothes, at Hero's bedroom window.
Pedro, Claudio and Leonato ensure that Benedick (hidden in a garden arbour) hears them discuss Beatrice's presumably passionate love for him. Hero and Ursula play a similar trick on the listening Beatrice (here the passion is Benedick's). On the night before the wedding Don John offers to give the Prince and Claudio proof of Hero's unfaithfulness. Later, Borachio heard boasting about his successful deceit to a drunken comrade, is arrested by the Watch and taken to Dogberry, the constable. Before Leonato can know anything, the wedding ceremony is due. In the church Claudio denounces Hero, who faints. The Friar proposes that Hero be reported dead and hidden until the truth is known. Beatrice, much grieved, urges Benedick to kill Claudio. At length all is revealed and the penitent Claudio promises to marry a niece of Leonato, said to be the image of the “dead” Hero. She is, of course, Hero herself; Beatrice and Benedick, as expected, resolve their “merry war,” and news comes that Don John has been taken prisoner.
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