It’s believed that Queen Elizabeth pressured Shakespeare to write The Merry Wives of Windsor, featuring Sir John Falstaff, in just two weeks. It might be one of his silliest plays, but it’s funny enough to keep audiences laughing throughout 400 years.
The exuberant production now playing at the Allen Elizabethan Theatre might be described as Shakespeare on steroids. This lavish, high-energy show directed by Terri McMahon is set more or less in the present, but it’s a present filled with elation, trickery and dancing!
Some of the characters are having rollicking fun in spite of a bothersome Falstaff, embodied by Daniel Parker. Falstaff believes that Mrs. Page and Mrs. Ford, played by delightful Royer Bokus and Amy Kim Waschke, are both lusting after him. He’s broke; they have money to spare. Surely they’ll pay for his amorous services. Little does he know that he hasn’t got a chance against these clever, attractive middle class housewives.
When we’re not entangled in Falstaff’s goofy plots, we can check out the younger generation. Mr. and Mrs. Page are seeking a husband for their daughter Anne, played by Katie Anvil Rich. Of course she has her own ideas, but she poses suitors against each other, just for the fun of it.
Friendly Mr. Page, played by James Ryen, doesn’t agree with his wife’s choice of a husband for Anne, but she can handle her spouse. Mr. Ford, played by Jasen Wright, has some devious plans of his own.
It’s sometimes hard to remember who’s who in the large cast, especially when three of them are named Simple, Slender and Shallow. Blame Shakespeare for that!
