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BrumHour saw The Merry Wives of Windsor at the invite of The RSC.
By Dave Massey x.com/BrumHour
Review: The Merry Wives of Windsor at The RSC Royal Shakespeare Theatre
⭐⭐⭐⭐”A fun comedy”
Directed by Blanche McIntyre
Sir John Falstaff (John Hodgkinson) finds that he’s picked the wrong women to womanise when Mistress Page (Samantha Spiro) and Alice Ford (Siubhan Harrison) team up to set about shaming him into behaving better.
This updated version of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor is certainly set now given the German football references and the European Championships taking place very soon. The production recognises the quirky language from the script and is very playful throughout and there are very clear characters to save confusion working out who everyone is.
The set features a three-sided stage with a large square of grass, from which sets emerge throughout, walls rotate to reveal the areas of Windsor and even a few insides of rooms.
The lighter tone of the story harks back to the 1970s in terms of comedy with the language of Shakespeare jumping out of the stage. There’s less audience interaction than in previous stories this year but some might find that better. The cast breaks the fourth wall to speak to the audience several times throughout. Samantha Spiro and Siubhan Harrison more than hold their own against John Hodgkinson and Richard Goulding’s Frank Ford seems to sidestep most of the mess he is causing. This really is John Hodgkinson to steal and I’m sure he will do this at every single performance.
At two hours and fifty minutes, this is a fairly long production including a twenty-minute interval and there are moments where things could run a little tighter, but on the whole, the pace keeps up throughout.
A fun comedy, The Merry Wives of Windsor is at Royal Shakespeare Theatre until 7th September 2024. Book tickets here: rsc.org.uk/the-merry-wives-of-windsor.
