Dylan Arredondo and Anna DiGiovanni star as Benedick and Beatrice in Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing. The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company presents the play outdoors, through July 24, in the ruins of PFI Historic Park in Ellicott City, Maryland. Photo by Kiirstn Pagan

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If you’re a fan of comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his eponymous 90s TV “show about nothing,” chances are you’ll enjoy William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, performed by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (CSC) outdoors among the ruins at PFI Historic Park in Ellicott City, Maryland.

Viewed from a 21^st century perspective, Much Ado offers inspiration for many a Seinfeldian plot element, from mistaken identity (Kramer or H. E. Pennypacker? Hero or Margaret?) to the trials and tribulations of dating, all with witty repartee, innuendo, double entendre and, of course, lots of laughs. Toss in a buffoon in uniform and a conniving villain (Hello, Newman), and the comparison is complete.

Unlike the sitcom, director Seamus Miller’s version of Much Ado takes place not in New York City, but at a villa in the French countryside at the close of World War II.

To capture the audience’s attention, members of the CSC company, in their period costumes, circulate among the crowd, one waving a reproduction of a period newspaper shouting, “Have you heard? Paris is liberated!”

By the way, costume designer Lynly Saunders deserves credit for all the fine wardrobe touches, such as vintage snood hairnets on the ladies, woolen cloaks, and uniforms of the French mounted police.

A questionable decision

In notes to the play, director Miller explains that the nod to WWII was designed with “an awareness of our own circumstances: isolation during the pandemic, the tragic war in Ukraine, and the political divisions here at home.” That’s fine, but besides a tossed-in reference to General Patton, the setting appeared to add little substance to the story.

It is interesting to note that Shakespeare’s villain, Don John, becomes the decorated female Russian officer Madame Jean, “inspired by the female Soviet bomber pilots” of the war. This seems odd, as those pioneering pilots, like the all-female 588^th Russian bomber regiment dubbed the “Night Witches,” were grand dames of the war, playing a key role in defeating the Nazis.

Why cast such a character as a villain, and similarly, all her “knavish” and similarly Soviet-uniformed minions, Borachio and Conrad? If the point is to evoke the dastardly Russian invasion in Ukraine, why make that connection?

And if we are in the French countryside, why all the references to Messina, Italy, the original setting of Shakespeare’s comedy? Would it have been too difficult to substitute “Paris” for “Messina”? Why retain the Italian prefixes “Don” and “Signore”?

Witty repartee

But back to the laughs. At the heart of the play are Benedick (Dylan Arredondo) and Beatrice (Anna DiGiovanni), two characters whose flirtatious repartee forms the basis of the play.

Arredondo makes the most of his physical size, playing his girth for laughs (can a 200+ pound, 6-foot-tall man hide behind a fern?).

DiGiovanni is a delightful dervish, always on the move, flashing a brilliant smile complete with Victory red lipstick (a patriotic sign of the times) and even brighter wit as she plays verbal parry and riposte with the man…she will marry?

Here’s where it breaks down a bit. While Arredondo and DiGiovanni are pitch-perfect in their “I hate him/her so much I could spit”-attitudes (their bent toward marriage akin to merrily leaning into a hurricane), there should be at least the smallest spark of sexual attraction between the two. There isn’t.

So when, as in most Shakespearean comedies, the curtain falls with everyone properly paired and all is not-Deutschland-but-love uber alles, one is left wondering, what transpired to drive these two into each other’s arms rather into the points of each other’s blades?

And it’s this lack of spark that makes the audience doubt whether or not this rendition of the 16^th-century play really centers on Benedick and Beatrice.

It would seem the true protagonists are Claudio (Jordan Brown) and Hero (Kate Forton), as their connection is clear and follows an understandable arc: Boy meets girl, they become a couple, life throws huge hurdles in the way, they overcome what appears to be even death to “live happily ever after.”

Talented cast

But this is all much ado about…well, you know. Miller gets top-notch performances out of his entire cast, who put the full range of emotions on display, and demonstrate fine improv skills.

With an outdoor performance, anything can happen, such as the unexpected blaring whistle of a passing train occurring as Don Pedro (Ryan Tumlty), Claudio and Benedick arrive on stage. All three turned in the direction of the whistle and saluted; greeted by Leonata (Molly Moores), Benedick noted, “We’ve just come by train.”

Particularly enjoyable was the music and song by the CSC company, appropriate to the WWII era, including Edith Piaf, Woody Guthrie and Jacques Brel, whose songs like “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Nothing but Blue Skies” provided transition from scene to scene.

CSC’s Much Ado About Nothing continues its run through Sunday, July 24. For tickets and more information, call the box office at (410) 244-8570 or visit ChesapeakeShakespeare.com.