Much Ado About Nothing

In Messina, everyone is an expert on love and a complete disaster at it. Austin Shakespeare brings William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing to Zilker Hillside Theatre from May 7–24, 2026. Admission is free, although donations will be accepted. Sharp-tongued Beatrice and sworn bachelor Benedick spend most of the play loudly insisting they would rather do anything than fall in love — which fools absolutely no one. Around them, the considerably less self-aware romance of Hero and Claudio lurches toward catastrophe with the help of a villain, a case of mistaken identity, and the most gloriously comic police force in the Shakespeare canon. The result is the Bard at his most irresistible: a comedy of wit, pride, scheming and the thoroughly humbling power of love.