From The Merry Wives of Windsor
DETAILS
North Glenmore Park
Friday, July 27 - Saturday, August 25
More in: Theatre
When Martin Fishman, artistic director of Mount Royal College’s Shakespeare in the Park, likened The Merry Wives of Windsor to a modern sitcom, he wasn’t kidding. The show is a riot, thanks in large part to the spirited and energetic performances of the cast.
The play tells the story of Sir John Falstaff (Brian Jensen), who plans to seduce two women simultaneously in order to get at their husbands’ money. He sends Mistress Page (Heather Lea MacCallum) and Mistress Ford (Julie Orton) identical letters professing his adoration. It just so happens, however, that the two women compare notes. They plan their good-humoured revenge by falsely leading Falstaff on and encouraging his advances.
Meanwhile, Mistress Ford’s husband (Jordan Schartner) gets wind that Falstaff is planning on wooing his wife. In order to monitor what happens between them, Ford disguises himself and approaches Falstaff to supposedly court Mistress Ford on his behalf.
Mistress Ford invites Falstaff to call when her husband isn’t at home. While Falstaff is there, her husband returns (after learning of the meeting through his own little scheme) in a jealous rage determined to find the illicit suitor. His search comes up empty, though, as the women have already subjected Falstaff to a humiliating escape.
A subplot involves Mistress Page’s daughter, Anne (Brittney Francis). She has three suitors: one her mother likes, one her father likes and one she likes. A final act of humorous revenge involving Falstaff helps Anne resolve her predicament.
Fishman sets the show in the 1950s. The choice of time period works well with the plot and contributes to its overall sense of fun and frivolity.
Kudos to Brian Craik, Brooklyn Ritchie, Shannon Iwamoto and Lilja Gareau-Smith for their work on the set and costumes, consisting of full ’50s skirts, black leather jackets and pedal pushers. Popular tunes of the ’50s punctuate the production, along with several outbursts of twisting and rock ’n’ roll during set changes.
The show moves along at a good pace, although it becomes substantially more entertaining once Falstaff and the women serving his revenge take centre stage. Characters run, rather than walk, offstage, not allowing the story to drag. Jensen is hysterical as Falstaff. His comic timing, in particular, is dead on, and he doesn’t mind stretching the character’s comic boundaries to their full extent.
The main problem is that some of the scenes featuring characters less central to the plot, such as Hugh Evans (Tyrell Crews) and Doctor Caius (Telly James) get lost in the overall production. While the acting is good, it’s sometimes not clear how an individual scene fits into the story.
This might be due to the inaudibility of some of the lines. Barking dogs and helicopters muffled the dialogue. MacCallum sounded hoarse by the end of the show from projecting her voice. Some sort of mike and sound system would be a good investment.
Taking in The Merry Wives of Windsor is a fun, upbeat way to spend an evening. Unlike Shakespeare in the Park’s previous production, this one managed to keep my mind off the mosquitoes.
