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If all this sounds like a rude blast of fresh air, it's because it is. Director Mikey Laird spent two years on this adaptation, and for the most part succeeds in using modern language that preserves the text's original meaning, as when Benedick (played with biker-boy charm by Mike Schiff) jeers of the villainous Don John that "None but skanks and scumbags delight in him."
Shawn Quinlan's eclectic costume designs hit their mark, with characters lounging at ease in loafers and making out under tables sporting black glitter leggings. As Don John's henchman, Borachia, Celeste Burns seems to have come out of the womb speaking Shakespearean English, and Sarah Shirkey's Verges is so subtle we watch her reactions almost more than we watch the bumbling Dogberry.
Audience members get launched into the action, encouraged to dance onstage, heckle the actors, and post Instagram photos of the show in real time, and in the grand off-Loop tradition, there's sex, booze, and a live band. So party on, Wayne.
The Most Ado: A Party Play Through 4/13: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee, 773-398-7028, nothingspecialproductions.com, $18, $15 in advance.
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