By Pat Craig
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

From dim-witted cops to lovers in hilarious denial, "Much Ado About Nothing," provides enough raucous laughter to warm any chilly summer evening.

And that, as Martha Stewart used to say, is a good thing, because the opening night of San Francisco Shakespeare Festival's Free Shakespeare in the Park began with a breeze that turned a bit icy once the sun went down. But, by that time, most of the audience was so wrapped up in the ongoing anti-courtship of Beatrice (Julia Brothers) and Benedick (Stephen Klum) they blew away the wind with gales of laughter.

"Much Ado," one of Shakespeare's funniest plays, was a great choice for this year's Free Shakespeare tour, which will stop at parks around the Bay Area throughout the summer and finally plays in San Francisco through September.

It's the sort of show that is a great light dessert following a picnic dinner on a lazy Saturday. The play doesn't ask for more than a bit of attention, and in return, it provides truckloads of laughter around the bumpy romantic road traveled by both Beatrice and Benedick and Claudio (Michael Navarra) and Hero (Sofia Ahmad).

Claudio and Hero are a fairly conventional couple, in love and not worried about who knows -- it is only a misunderstanding and a bit of lying that makes their relationship hit some severe turbulence. Beatrice and Benedick, on the other hand, are warriors for whom nothing comes easy, particularly acquiescing to the hearts and flowers of conventional romance. Their relationship could be more aptly described as clubs and cactus, as their courtship quickly dissolves into a quagmire of insults and ill wishes, expressed so cleverly that you secretly harbor hopes the two will never reach the calm shores of happily ever after.

It is this cleverness that makes the whole thing so entertaining -- as the insults fly, you soon realize you are watching some world class word-wranglers take their best shots, beneath the lethal quill of Shakespeare.

Add to this, Constable Dogberry (Jack Powell) and his entourage of dimwits, and you have a buffet of comedy. Dogberry is a Shakespearean version of Barney Fife from the old "Andy Griffith Show," who has learned several long and impressive words, and insists on using them, even though he is not quite sure of what they mean or how to use them. Halton creates at outstandingly funny Dogberry by adopting a broad European accent and playing the role as an officious bureaucrat.

Brothers and Klum are also outstanding both as worthy opponents and appealing creations.

Director Kenneth Kelleher has taken the best route to hilarity -- staging the show, which he has set in 1930s Spain, in an extremely straightforward manner, and allowing the laughter to come naturally through the oddball characters as written by Shakespeare.

Pat Craig is the Contra Costa Times theater critic. Reach him at 925-945-4736 or pcraig@cctimes.com