'Much Ado' about Hofstra's Shakespeare Festival

As merry as the day is long.”
These are the renowned words spoken by Shakespeare’s memorable heroine Beatrice in “Much Ado About Nothing,” the Bard’s sharp, smart comedy about men and women and what it takes to make love happen.
It’s one of thousands of famous quotations recited during the 63 years of Hofstra University’s annual Shakespeare Festival.
“Much Ado About Nothing” is the featured production at this year’s festival, scheduled for March 1 to 11. Jean Dobie Giebel, Hofstra associate professor of drama and dance, directs a new imagining of Shakespeare’s witty comedy of errors, set here on Long Island – on the North Shore – at the close of World War I. This multifaceted comedy about two sets of lovers – one battling an evil plot, while the other battles each other – features a cast of 28, all Hofstra students. It’s one of the largest productions ever staged at festival, according to Giebel, and full of spectacle, including song and dance.
The setting for this battle of wits between the lovers is drawn from a group of young men returning home from war. Leisure does not seem to suit these soldiers, and so they create intrigues to pass the time. In a counterpoint to the main plot, Shakespeare has set two of his most memorable characters, Beatrice and Benedick. Although brought together by a ruse, Benedick meets his match in Beatrice. He is not meant to “woo peaceably,” and neither is she, but Benedick must now lay down his arms and trade trenches for garden parties, bullets for witty banter, and marches for the fox trot. Shakespeare reminds us “the course of true love never did run smooth” so sometimes it takes us a little bit longer than expected to find our way home.