Much Ado About Nothing and The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival announces 2025 season

The 36th annual program also includes The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] (Again) and The Dark Lady

FRESH OFF THE heels of the 2024 season, the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival has announced its programming for 2025. Next year’s fest at Sen̓áḵw/Vanier Park features Much Ado About Nothing, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] (Again), and The Dark Lady.

Much Ado About Nothing, which features some of the Bard’s wittiest wordplay, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona will alternate in repertory on the BMO Mainstage next summer. The former centres on two couples, Beatrice and Benedick along with Claudio and Hero, in a story jampacked with secret love, courtship, warfare, and deception. The company is putting an ’80s musical twist on the latter, a tale of friendship and the crazy ways young love makes people behave. The role of Crab in Two Gentlemen of Verona will be played by an actual dog, the only canine role in the Shakespearean canon.

In the Douglas Campbell Theatre, the other two productions will play in repertory. Making its Bard on the Beach debut, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] [Again] by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield has played to critical acclaim around the globe. Three players present a laugh-out-loud romp through all of Shakespeare’s canonical plays plus the famous sonnets. The Dark Lady, by Canadian playwright and actor Jessica B. Hill, tells the nearly lost story of Emilia Bassano, a multiracial, trilingual woman who was also a talented musician and England’s first female published poet. The question remains: Is Bassano the “Dark Lady” of Shakespeare’s sonnets? The show brings the two poets together in a complicated love story about art, desire, and ambition.

Season packs are now on sale at bardonthebeach.org.

Featured

Gail Johnson

Gail Johnson is cofounder and associate editor of Stir. She is a Vancouver-based journalist who has earned local and national nominations and awards for her work. She is a certified Gladue Report writer via Indigenous Perspectives Society in partnership with Royal Roads University and is a member of a judging panel for top Vancouver restaurants.

Articles

Theatre review: Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again] takes pleasingly panicked tour of the Bard’s canon

As if haunted by centuries of hits and flops, the three figures in this Bard on the Beach comedy take jabs at the self-consciousness and shaky footing of being an actor

Carousel Theatre for Young People unveils 49th season that spans Where the Wild Things Are, an all-new Family Forward Festival, and more

Lineup also includes an offering from South Korea, an adaptation of The Paper Bag Princess, and a family-friendly drag show

Theatre review: Sparks fly between brilliant equals in Bard on the Beach’s The Dark Lady

Poetic flourishes and strong characterizations bring compelling charge to imagined story of Shakespeare and the woman who inspired and challenged him

Pacific Theatre announces fall-only season before leaving historic venue in new year

Comedy with Charlie Demers and Jacob Samuel and a remount of Wakey, Wakey are some of the offerings onstage before renovations and a time of internal review in 2026

Women of the Fur Trade opens Touchstone Theatre's just-announced 50th season

More mainstage offerings include love story Gertrude & Alice, video-game-style production 2021, and solo show Danceboy

Bard Club cultivates lively Shakespeare discussions at Vanier Park, starting July 16

Facilitated conversations with directors take place before matinee showings of four Bard on the Beach productions this season

Theatre review: Fresh take on Legally Blonde uplifts and empowers at Theatre Under the Stars

Core elements of this audience favourite remain in a production full of touches that feel unmistakably contemporary

Page Turn puts out call for emerging performing-arts critics

Vancouver’s Neworld Theatre is producing and administering nationwide initiative in search of experienced arts writers who are IBPOC or face other barriers

A Punjabi play, an enlightening salon series, and more as Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts unveils 2025 lineup

This year’s event, on from August 7 to 17, also features a standup comedy show by YouTube star Manpreet Singh and all-ages dance workshops

Theatre review: Theatre Under the Stars brings its own darkly inventive comedy to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Young cast fuels this new production of the Roald Dahl classic with over-the-top silliness and sheer song-and-dance talent

Bard on the Beach star Arghavan Jenati reflects on Dark Lady at the heart of Shakespeare’s work

New production of Jessica B. Hill’s witty play reclaims the lost history of poet Emilia Bassano

Theatre review: Arts Club stages a top-tier murder-mystery template with Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap

From revealing performances to spot-on costumes and sets, this new production conjures all the atmosphere of the play’s old London home

Theatre artist Bernard Cuffling serves up life stories, sips, and snacks at a rooftop-garden gathering, July 6

Western Gold Theatre fundraiser features the U.K.–born Canadian artist in an intimate, informal setting

Theatre review: Two Gentlemen of Verona’s comic tale of romance and betrayal thrives on ’80s-era dazzle

In Bard on the Beach’s new production, retro pastels and power suits map surprisingly well onto the chaos of Shakespeare’s sometimes troublesome original

Theatre review: Eyes of the Beast asks what it means to bear witness to climate disaster

Neworld Theatre in collaboration and SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts humanizes the issue by drawing on real, lived memories of fires, floods, and heat waves

Arts Club Theatre Company resets Agatha Christie classic The Mousetrap, June 26 to August 10

With audiences sworn to secrecy over a decades-long run, the mystery at the heart of author’s most famous whodunit endures

Theatre review: Bard on the Beach opener Much Ado About Nothing mixes summery charm with updated reflections

With modernized touches and strong performances, this adaptation renews the wit and scheming of Shakespeare’s classic comedy

Theatre review: Arts Club cooks up a creative hit with a Waitress that's moving yet whimsical

Rachel Drance’s poignant performance mixes well with choreographic and design innovations in new rendition of musical at the Stanley

Theatre Under the Stars music directors welcome the chance to work outdoors in Stanley Park

Sean Bayntun and Eliza De Castro sound off on bringing to life the bold characters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Legally Blonde: The Musical