Witty barbs flew faster than mosquitoes at Red Deer’s Bower Ponds on Thursday during the opening night of Much Ado About Nothing, which was re-set in wartime England.

The Bard on Bower’s second Shakespearean comedy on the outdoor stage (it’s being performed in repertoire with The Comedy of Errors) is an entertaining battle of the sexes between Beatrice and Benedick, who are too stubborn to stop their stinging put-downs of each other for long enough to admit their love.

By casting Glenda Warkentin as Beatrice and Peter Pelletier as Benedick, Prime Stock Theatre director Thomas Usher has found the perfect foils.

In this production, Beatrice is a Second World War nurse working at her uncle’s convalescent home and Benedick is a heroic fighter pilot, who accompanies his friends on a social call to the home for wounded soldiers.

The two marriage-shirking adversaries barely lay eyes on each other before drawing their battle lines: Beatrice remarks that Benedick has lost three of his four wits, so “now the whole man is governed by one;” Benedick goes on a five-minute tirade against Beatrice before saying “let’s not talk of her anymore” — only to continue his harangue for as long as his friends will listen.

Both Warkentin and Pelletier have perfect command of Shakespearean dialogue, which makes their characters’ humorous rants completely understandable to a modern audience.

They also showed good insight into the prickly characters they play, performing the roles of Beatrice and Benedick as wilful and coquettish rather than angry or obstinate. This makes the couple funny, instead of just grating.

Jarrett Viczko and Nikolina Viskovic respectively play the other romantic item in this comedy, Claudio and Hero.

Viczko applies the right amount of naivety and moral high-mindedness to the role of Claudio, who’s tricked into doubting Hero’s virtue and cruelly spurns her on their wedding day.

Viskovic plays the wounded ingenue well. Her emotional exchanges with her angry father, Leonato (well played by Ron Schuster), who also wrongly believes his daughter’s reputation is in tatters, verge on farcical because they are so over-the-top dysfunctional.

There are no weak links in this production (although Mathew VanBuuren’s villainous Don John character could have been played with more moustache-twirling glee, and Lorraine Stuart’s Dogberry occasionally stumbled, no doubt due to opening night jitters).

Some noteworthy performances are Derek Olinek’s genial Don Pedro, Jesse Gordon’s mischievous Borachio and Jenn Wader’s Balthasar, who got to sing such wartime chestnuts as Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree as well as Shakespeare’s Hey Nonny, Nonny.

The first act even featured an inspired, gender-bending dance number, done as entertainment for the wounded troops.

The wartime setting worked well and Usher set a good pace. But more thought could have gone into the environment the play would be performed in.

Everybody knows it gets cold here late at night and after weeks of rain, legions of mosquitoes were moving in for the kill on Thursday — especially around the time the play was wrapping up at 10:10 p.m.

Since Much Ado About Nothing was written with a more draggy second act, Usher would have done well to have cut some later scenes, such as the one in which Claudio, believing Hero is dead, goes to her grave to pay his respects. There seemed little point in staging a mournful bagpipe procession when the audience is in on the ruse and knows full well that Hero lives.

But it’s a small point that an otherwise enjoyable evening should have wrapped up sooner.

Hopefully the audience for Bard at Bower will grow before both plays conclude their runs on Aug. 7. Bring lawn chairs and plenty of bug spray!

Much Ado runs, weather permitting, on today, as well as Aug. 2, 4, 6, 7 at 7:30 p.m. Comedy of Errors runs Saturday at 2 p.m., Aug. 1 and 5 at 7:30 p.m., and Aug. 7 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the gate ($10 for students/ seniors). Children 12 and under are free.

There’s a pay-what-you-“Will” evening on Aug. 4, as well as matinees today and Aug. 2 and 7.

lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com