Benedick and Beatrice are sworn enemies, but they have a shared past: an affair which went wrong and left wounded feelings and injured pride on both sides. However, Beatrice’s younger cousin Hero is now to be married to one of Benedick’s close friends and they are once again drawn into each other’s company. For the sake of her cousin and Uncle Leonato, Beatrice must force herself to be civil to her former lover and his friends. Meanwhile, Benedick’s friends play a trick on him, allowing him to eavesdrop as they discuss how much Beatrice still loves him.  .  .

This production will be set in the English countryside in the Summer of 1945 with the officers and young men returning from the War in Europe to find Beatrice, Hero and the other local women still working as Land Girls. Dogberry and Verges have spent the War keeping order in the village by running the local Home Guard unit and now find they are kept busy when, by chance, they uncover a plot which threatens the happiness of Leonato’s household.  

With music and costumes from the wartime period this promises to be a very special production !

For more information about this production please contact the director Pete Bagley via the email artisticdirector@criteriontheatre.co.uk