Much Ado About Nothing – Prior Lake Players

The Prior Lake Players stage Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at Twin Oaks Middle School, 15860 Fish Point Rd in Prior Lake. There are five performances: Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24, then Thursday through Saturday, October 29, 30 and 31.

Every show starts at 7 p.m. This production takes the comedy into the world of reality TV.

The Players bill it as “A Shakespearean Reality Check”: at an ivy-covered East Coast estate, two couples get caught up in romance, gossip and schemes, in the spirit of The Real Housewives and Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The estate becomes a reality-TV set where the cameras are always rolling, and the story moves from the couches in “The Study” to the confessional and on into the monitor and control rooms, where it keeps going behind the cameras.

Live camera feeds put the action on screen as it plays out on stage, so nobody misses a side-eye or a confessional. It’s still the story of Beatrice and Benedick’s war of wits and the whirlwind romance between Claudio and Hero.

Anna Kral directs. Tickets are $24, or $21 for students and seniors, and seating is assigned.

Buy tickets online up to two hours before each show. Any seats left are sold at the door.

To promote the show, the cast made Ado Island , a reality-TV-style series that premiered Oct. 14, with new episodes on the Players’ social media every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10 a.m. through the run. More about the production is on the Players’ website .

The Prior Lake Players are the community theater group behind last spring’s Shrek the Musical.