Merely Players Presents: Much Ado About a Handkerchief By William Shakespeare Adapted by Rachel Kohler An Original Merely Players Mash-Up Sunday, August 9th at 5pm There’s no such thing as a “new” Shakespeare play… or is there? Experience Shakespeare’s beloved comedy Much Ado About Nothing in a way we promise you’ve never seen before, in this original Merely Players mashup of Much Ado and Othello. Much Ado famously teeters right on the edge of disaster before pulling everyone back from the brink to celebrate a (mostly) happy ending of reconciliation and rekindled love. By contrast, Much Ado About a Handkerchief lets the jealous obsessions of the play travel to their natural conclusion: destruction and untimely death. It’s not QUITE a new play. But it’s Shakespeare’s very old words used in a very new way. So we ask you: what if Much Ado was a tragedy? Well, here’s how you find out.