Jealousy, sex and revenge abound in Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s production of Shakespeare’s farcical The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Widely regarded as one of the playwright’s weaker and hastier efforts, Merry Wives has the propensity to feel over-the-top and rambling. Cincy Shakes’ production is no different.
The play follows the antics of the boorish and lascivious Sir John Falstaff and his efforts to dig himself out of financial hardship by wooing two wealthy wives, Mistress Margaret Page and Mistress Alice Ford, at the same time.
Of course, these women are Sir John’s woefully cunning counterparts. They discover his half-baked scheme and exact revenge on Sir John in the most humiliating ways possible. Set in the late Edwardian period at the turn of the 20th century — concurrent with the women’s suffrage movement in Britain — Cincy Shakes’ production uses this era in an attempt to add its own spin on the comedy.
However, this theme does little else for the production than add a hasty and unfocused tie-in to the ArtsWave-inspired “Season of the Woman” campaign. Only focused on or included in the production for the first 20 minutes or so, the theme — which was prominently advertised — soon drops out of existence.
Naturally, every Shakespearean comedy must end in a wedding, and Merry Wives follows suit — though this marriage is one of many simultaneous and less-riveting subplots that comprise the play.
Merry Wives focuses on the middle and lower classes of British society. And though members of the ensemble certainly make use of their absurd characters to evoke laughter, some of the choices made by director Brian Isaac Phillips (who is also the producing artistic director at Cincy Shakes) felt, at times, cruel.
For the first few scenes, women in the cast march across stage carrying misspelled signs that call for women’s right to vote. Other than for quick laughs, the purpose of these crosses and props feels unclear. What is the message the signs are sending? That the suffrage movement was silly? Or that the working class is doltish and unimpactful? I’m certain that neither Phillips nor anyone involved in the production meant it to come off this way, but without a greater focus on the theme, these elements feel nebulous.
Seinfeld-esque entrances and mannerisms from some of the male characters were another element that added additional confusion to the production’s hazy tone. For a play set in the Edwardian period, these moments felt anachronistic and unclear.
Though unfocused, the production did feature plenty of wonderfully riveting talent. Company member Billy Chace dons perpetually stained overalls to play the delightfully foul Sir John Falstaff. Chace has a way with Shakespeare’s language that makes it feel as effortless as breathing air. He brings a marvelous cadence to his words that shape every scene he’s in. It’s genuinely pleasing to listen to him craft each sentence.
The merry wives themselves had natural and delightful chemistry together. As Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, Jennifer Joplin and Abby Lee, respectively, left a lingering craving for more in the air. Lee, in particular, had an astoundingly malleable face that gifted purely funny expressions. It’s a shame that Shakespeare’s comedy doesn’t lend more scenes to the two cunning women.
The play certainly has its hilarious moments, both in writing and delivery. However, there were far too many modern and added asides to Merry Wives to keep the audience anchored in the production.
Though Merry Wives is typically regarded as one of Shakespeare’s weakest plays, it is a work that, nonetheless, has endured for over 400 years. It does not need witty Martin Scorcese or other modern references to make it palatable. Adding lines to Shakespeare’s play does both the work and the audience a disservice.
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s The Merry Wives of Windsor runs through Dec. 7. More info/tickets: cincyshakes.com.
This article appears in Nov 13-26, 2019.
