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 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

Actor-playwright Faly Mevamanana embraces the weird in The Baking Show Show: The Play

In this left-field comedy, the obsessive lead character is driven by the same perfectionism that her creator has learned to leave aside in life

Theatre review: You’re Just a Place That I Know is a moving musical reflection on family and memory

Based on Adrian Glynn McMorran’s album of the same name, the show at the Arts Club’s BMO Theatre Centre is more than just a concert

Theatre review: Comedic snap of Metro Theatre’s Barefoot in the Park gives retro setting a timeless resonance

Sharp dialogue and restless energy, prodded on by the little irritations of married life, result in cozy yet unsettling laughs

Ventriloquist Michael Harrison embraces the magical escapism of puppetry

Ahead of his Anvil Theatre show, the long-time cruise-line performer talks about dispelling childhood fears with lovable characters

Review: Liquid limbs and mesmerizing visual magic at Recirquel’s Paradisum

In DanceHouse and The Cultch co-presentation, the Hungarian company is full of flowing bodies and rippling fabric

Blackout Art Society’s English looks at language and belonging, January 23 to February 1 at the Firehall

Sanaz Toossi’s play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2023 for its look at four students preparing for the TOEFL

At the Advance Theatre Festival, Alexandra Lainfiesta uses magic realism to explore the personal sacrifices of immigration

Latinx theatre artist’s debut script unfolds across three worlds: Toronto, Antigua Guatemala, and a realm in which the immigration system functions like a game show

You’re Just a Place That I Know retraces a refugee story through song, at the BMO Theatre Centre from January 21 to February 1

Adrian Glynn McMorran’s moving theatre-concert pays tribute to his Ukraine-born grandparents, complete with a choir and traditional instruments

Carousel Theatre for Young People hosts first annual Family Forward Festival, February 14 to 16

Offerings range from storytelling event The Family Flame to dance parties, documentary screenings, drag performances, and more

Daily human cost of the Russo-Ukrainian war revealed in PuSh Fest’s Eight Short Compositions

The starkly moving show by the Czech Republic’s Archa Centre of Documentary Theatre recounts true stories of lives upended by the conflict

House of Folk: A Lost Canadian Folk Show premieres at the Firehall Arts Centre, February 14 to March 8

Production by Tracey Power transports audiences back to the time of coffeehouse open mics that nurtured musicians like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen

Théâtre la Seizième hosts Parler mal at Alliance Française Vancouver, February 6 and 7

Théâtre Gauche production probes into linguistic insecurities and the stigma of being a “bad francophone”

Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park lands at Metro Theatre, January 24 to February 14

Romantic comedy set in 1960s New York City follows newlyweds navigating marriage, compromise, and the beautiful mess of learning how to live

Dark comedy The Baking Show Show: The Play premieres with Ruby Slippers Theatre in February

Presented with the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts and Presentation House Theatre, Faly Mevamanana’s play centres on a cultural obsession with competition

Anvil Theatre presents Michael Harrison's Ventastic: Reimagining the Art of Ventriloquism, January 31

Skilled Canadian ventriloquist has competed on America’s Got Talent and headlined with Disney Cruise Line for more than two decades

Advance Theatre Festival brings five staged readings to the Shadbolt Centre, January 26 to 30

Ruby Slippers Theatre presentation features new works by Irene (Fan) Yi, Abi Padilla, Marcia Johnson, Alexandra Lainfiesta, and Sewit Eden Haile

Sanaz Toossi's Pulitzer Prize–winning play English comes to the Firehall Arts Centre, January 23 to February 1

Amir Hosseini directs the Blackout Art Society production about four Iranian adults preparing for an English proficiency exam

Burning Mom parks its camper at the Kay Meek Arts Centre, the Anvil Theatre, and the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in January

Playwright Mieko Ouchi’s story of one woman’s self-discovery in the Nevada Desert is rooted in her mother’s true story

Year in review: Looking back on a few standout moments in Vancouver’s theatre and dance scenes in 2025

Provocatively reimagined endings to opera and Shakespeare were among the random scenes that stuck with us from the year onstage

Rollicking panto, offbeat film, Viennese musical elegance, and more offer unique ways to celebrate New Year’s

Whether you’re into show tunes or funk, improv comedy or acrobatics, you’re sure to find your own way of welcoming 2026 with the help of Vancouver’s arts companies and venues