The Merry Wives of Windsor
by William Shakespeare
Georgia Shakespeare Festival, in repertory through August 11
(Notes written in July, Year 2)
Disclaimer: I worked on an amateur production of Wives a few years ago, and some of what I say will certainly be colored by that experience. (Which won't keep me from saying it.)
The least ruly of Shakespeare's comedies is often the least rewarding too. Parts of it read like the current-events skit you put on in high school civics, other sections are howlingly funny but only if you've been following intently, and a few scenes ought to come with perforations so you can rip them out before they frighten away the actors. The show calls for an enormous cast and permits next to no doubling. No company in our time seems likely to attempt it without some ambitious transformation effect at the end of Act 2.
Fortunately, Windsor has Falstaff as its resident genius, adorable children come on in shoals, and the wives are genuinely merry, especially when talking about their husbands. Many of the gags fire every time, and the wonky ending can, believe it or not, come across as the most hair-raising moment in Shakespeare. And the production we saw (directed by Tom Markus) had enough art in it to make the best of the material.
Well, almost. Our music was better. Our transformation, though cheap, evidently cost about the same as Georgia Shakespeare's and worked a dozen times better. And our director/dramaturg cut Justice Shallow, a part I feel sure can be played comically.
The vast knight Sir John Falstaff is lodging at the Garter Inn in the village of Windsor, with retinue complete. His funds running low, he downsizes the troupe and simultaneously devises a plan to get some middle-class shillings into his poke. He writes form letters to Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, who control their family purses, proposing to fall in love with them severally. The wives, not much tempted, compare letters and resolve to punish Falstaff's presumption; Mrs. Ford sets him a time and a trap based on Mr. Ford's well-known quick temper. A disgruntled former employee gives Falstaff away to Ford, who jumps to the conclusion that his wife is betraying him. Disguising himself as Mr. Brook, Ford gives money to Falstaff to seduce her. Any sitcom writing staff could spin out the rest . . . except for the third tryst, which uses a local ghost story and delivers more bang than anything else in the play. Falstaff must put on stag's horns and await the wives at Herne's Oak, where the spirit of an old forester and hunter is said to appear at midnight. The Pages and Fords enlist the village people to come as fairies and torment him. Falstaff repents, and the play ends in a flurry of weddings and forgiveness.
Bruce Evers is a noticeably big man. He's wide and heavy and has a growly voice and a basketful of big-man tricks. Why the costumer strapped an extra belly on him I'll never understand, but there he stands looking unsettlingly pregnant as Falstaff. Still he brings the part off, driving the play on and on till its whole logic falls to pieces in the last scene. He's worth the price of the ticket. Chris Kayser as Mr. Ford/Mr. Brook dances effectively through his raver part, and Janice Akers gives us a smart, energetic Mrs. Ford. The supporting players are well up to their assignments.
The village comprises three houses and the Garter, charmingly designed, popup fashion, by Joe Varga. The forest I found disappointing, I have to say. A leaf drop flies in and a treetrunk appears on a wagon. Blah. Here's how you do the transformation: All the houses turn inside out to form venerable trunks. The Garter folds on itself to make Herne's Oak, biggest of all, with a huge fissure in the middle. Row upon row of leaves travel in from the wings. The blacklight causes everyone's eyeballs to glow. The whole scene change is executed by the large cast as they sing a Purcell round. Falstaff enters, then the wives, and finally the many, many children dressed as fairies in fluorescent cloaks. That's how you do the transformation. And at the end the fairies exit through the oak tree. Magic on the cheap. Georgia Shakespeare regrettably dropped the ball.
But the show makes a good, fast, funny, well-acted, mostly splendid-looking evening. You could go a long time without seeing a Falstaff this good or one who enjoys himself this much.
Also in rep in the 2002 season: Death of a Salesman and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
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Merry Wives of Windsor