The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a show about wit, manners and passion; it is filled with heroines with daring. So what better way to turn up the heat than to set it in the world of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind? The all-male cast allows for the wit of Shakespeare's text to reign free. It is remarkable how many times the wives refer to each other as "woman" when - as in this production - they would traditionally have been played by men.
Windsor is a town with love in the air. Shakespeare's ever popular anti-hero, Falstaff, and his men; Pistol, Bardolph and Nim arrive in town and, as usual, trouble begins to brew. They steal venison from Justice Shallow's land, rough up his hapless nephew Slender and then Falstaff decides that two of the local ladies are "in love" with him and so sends them each a "love" letter. His cronies are not impressed and refuse to help him in his suit and even go so far as to tell the husbands of Falstaff's shenanigans, hoping to get him in trouble.
Their plot falls short with Master Page as he is confident of his wife's fidelity but their words stir up Master Ford's jealous nature and inspire him to take action of his own. Ford disguises himself as "Master Brook" and asks Falstaff to help him lure Mistress Ford into an illicit affair to see if what Pistol said is true.
Meanwhile the merry wives have taken matters into their own hands. They get their identical letters from Falstaff and are so insulted that they decided to bait him into an illicit meeting and then throw him in the river to cool his ardour and teach him a lesson.
When that isn't enough, they lure him into getting beaten and finally, to truly cure him of his ardour, they tell their husbands and the whole town rallies around setting up Falstaff and teaching him a lesson once and for all.
But that isn't the only love in the air. The bewitching young Anne Page has been turning the heads of marriage-minded men who are all vying for her hand. Doctor Caius (Anne's mother's pick), Master Slender (her father's choice) and Master Fenton (Anne's favourite) all scheme and plot to get the girl - but only one can be successful.
Players
- FALSTAFF -- Bruce Brenton
- DR. CAIUS/ NIM -- Michael Collins
- BARDOLPH/ FENTON -- Ciarán Dyke
- HOST -- Glenn Gaulton
- PISTOL/ RUGBY -- Jim Dobbin
- MISTRESS QUICKLY -- Shree Ziradkar
- MISTRESS FORD -- Andy Cahill
- MISTRESS PAGE -- Michael Nolan
- FORD -- Chris Panting
- PAGE -- Tim Foss
- ANNE PAGE -- Dylan Brenton
- PARSON EVANS -- Jon Weir
- JUSTICE SHALLOW -- Peter Ayers
- SLENDER -- TBA
- SIMPLE/ ROBERT -- Jon Grenning
- WILLIAM -- Jeremy Morgan-Chollet
Production team
- Director -- Danielle Irvine
- Stage Management -- Laura-Marie Smith
- Assistant Stage Management -- Jon Marshall
- Costume Design -- Jennifer King
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Fridays and Saturdays from July 11-August 15, 2008 at 6 p.m.
St. John's Cabot 500 Theatre, Bowring Park
Also playing
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