OBSERVER: Many Wives of Windsor
Pictured: Elizabeth Brennan in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Photo: Ben Fon
Shakespeare’s comedy, The Merry Wives of Windsor, under the stars, directed by Glenn Elston was a delightful night of theatre.
Set at the Garter Inn and adjacent houses of two middle class Windsor families, the Fords and the Page, the company’s early 1970’s take was easily achieved by the play’s contemporaneity and universal themes.
To resolve his straitened circumstances, dissipated Sir John Falstaff Peter Houghton) endeavoured to simultaneously woo the wives, Mistresses Ford (Elizabeth Brennan) and Page (Anna Burgess).
His plans slowly unravelled as the Mistresses connived to toy with and out-wit Sir John who found himself dumped in the Thames (local referenced the Yarra) in a laundry basket.
His dignity further took a nosedive when he emerged from the river wearing white, Y-fronts. Draping a cotton check tea towel, he made a futile attempt to restore his decency in front of the audience.
Anne (Maddie Somers), daughter of the Page household, has three suitors; her father’s choice, dim-witted Slender (Alex Cooper), her mother’s, supercilious French Doctor Caius (Tony Rive) while Anne’s heartthrob is the poor but handsome, Fenton (Callum O’Malley).
Merciless fun was poked at the French doctor’s diction as well as the Welsh town clergyman and peacekeeper Sir Huw Evans’s pedantry.
Fenton stole hearts as he leapt from the dune-buggy he had driven on stage, to launch into the Bee Gee’s Stayin Alive dance routine.
Innkeeper, Mistress Quickly (Tash Herbert), as general confidante to everyone accepted bribes, which dropped into her ka-chinging, cash register cleavage.
With great wit, buffoonery, contemporary costuming, dance, music, lighting and clever staging, this multi-talented ensemble hilariously carried off the many twists and turns of Shakespeare’s script in this high energy performance.
Presented by the Australian Shakespeare Company at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.
Review by Sherryn Danaher