July 29-August 4, 2004

artpicks

Park Life

by Andrew Parks

theater

Nothing says summer quite like Shakespeare and SPF 48, sport ultra-sweatproof sunblock. The kind folks at Princeton Rep know this. It's the very reason they continue to stage one of the country's seven free (but donations encouraged), professional outdoor Shakespeare festivals.

Up for an overhaul this season is the romantic comedy of reluctant lovers, Much Ado About Nothing. Come on, now! As if Keanu Reeves' woah-dude rendition of Don John (played here by seasoned actor Ehren Ziegler) wasn't dead-on in Kenneth Branagh's 1993 film adaptation? Apparently not, since the play is now stoner-free and set in Massena, N.Y., the self-proclaimed "gateway to America's fourth coast," amid the Adirondack Mountains, along the St. Lawrence River and across the border from Canada.

Today, the upstate area boasts somewhat-shiny shipping locks and gargantuan turbines for producing hydroelectricity. In the scheme of Will's world, circa World War II, it's the host to wine country and an Army base. Recurring Princeton Rep actress Nell Gwynn (pictured) peels the feisty Beatrice off the famed "We Can Do It" posters of Rosie the Riveter (think a doo-rag, rolled-up sleeve and slight biceps). Alfredo Narciso also returns to the garden to play Benedick, Beatrice's snappy and sharp splitting-image. We'd get into the plot, but there are books for that sort of thing. Expect this much, though: crosshatched plot points, moral quandaries and the cruelty of love. Just don't forget to bring the hooch.

Much Ado About Nothing, July 29-Aug. 1 and Aug. 5-8, 8 p.m., freewill donation, Pettoranello Gardens Amphitheater, Route 206 and Mountain Ave., Princeton, N.J., 609-921-3682, www.princetonrep.org.