About This Clip
Much Ado About Almost Nothing
Part of the repertoire of the acclaimed Brazilian troupe Clowns de Shakespeare, Much Ado About Almost Nothing premiered in Natal (RN) in 2003 and toured Brazil for six years. It chronicles two distinct love stories: the sugary romance between Claudio and Hero and the war of witty insults between fiery Benedicto and Beatriz. In order to have a happy ending the lovers will have to escape the Machiavellian traps that villain Dom Joao plots for them.
The Brazilian love comedy lends new color to Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing with the aid of vibrant cultural elements from the northeast of Brazil. The fusion of the popular and the classic is especially evident through the music which was composed and performed on stage by the actors themselves. Colorful costumes and props were also skillfully used to create the mood that alternates between the lyrical and the comical.
Credits
Written and directed by: Fernando Yamamoto and Eduardo Moreira
Music Director: Marco Franca
Costume Design and Props: Joao Marcelino
Lighting: Rogerio Ferraz
Costume Assistant: Tiago Vieira
Cast:
Cesar Ferrario (Leonato and Vinagrao)
Joao Junior (Messenger, Dom John and Dom Pedro)
Nara Kelly (Hero and Borracho)
George Holanda (Claudio)
Renata Kaiser (Beatriz)
Titina Medeiros (Margarete)
Awards:
2004 Festival Nordestino de Teatro
2005 FIT Festival de Teatro Internacional do Rio Preto
That’s the path we’ve taken these twelve years: we respect the geniality of the English Bard and yet escape a museological, castrating, dead-end type of approach to his works. We want to appropriate those elements that are alive and make sense to us. To establish a dialogue between old Shakespeare with our popular poets, with our everyday urban globalized world, even in the northeast of Brazil. To propose a salad with all those ingredients. We do not have the ambition to reinvent the wheel. But of course we want to find another way to make it turn.
Production notes provided by Cristiane Busato Smith
