The Merry Wives Delight at Bard on the Beach (Guest Post by @NiftyNotCool)
How good can a Shakespearean comedy set in 1968 Windsor, Ontario really be? If the comedy in question is The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Johnna Wright and presented on Bard on the Beach‘s Douglas Campbell Studio Stage, the answer is this: pretty damn good.
Bard’s production of Merry Wives is ensemble theatre at its finest: every cog in the machine (from the costumes to the performances to the superb musical direction of Benjamin Elliot) just works, and the results are so much fun. Merry Wives is also a great example of directors and designers successfully using a specific time period and location (in this case, Windsor, Ontario, 1968) as a lens through which to present Shakespeare and really hitting upon something that not only entertains us, but also serves the piece. Somehow, the small-town Canadiana on display in the production (complete with Shriners, curling, and a bartender with a Newfie accent) brings Shakespeare’s comedy colourfully to life, making the inherent farce in the play both instantly recognizable and also refreshingly funny and new.
The strong cast (who also perform Bard’s King John) really gel in this production, with most of them singing or playing instruments at some point during the show (I never would have thought adding 60s-era country songs to a Shakespeare play would work, but amazingly it does, and well!). Katey Wright and Amber Lewis (as Mistress Page and Mistress Ford) do a tiptop job of carrying the plot (helped along by the machinations of Ashley Wright as Sir John Falstaff and Scott Bellis as Ford), but I must say that found a lot to like in every performance (whether the role was large or small), notably Patti Allan in the role of Mistress Quickly (who doesn’t seem to know sometimes what is going on but wants to be in the thick of everything), Todd Thomson as the (Newfie accented) Host of the Garter Inn, and Alex Rose, playing Bardolph but also supporting and underscoring the action with his impressive playing on the fiddle.
I’m not surprised the Saturday night performance I attended was sold out–I think you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who was in the audience that night who didn’t enjoy themselves, and I’m certain word of mouth from happy Bard patrons has been primarily responsible for the packed Studio seating. The directing and design teams took a leap presenting The Merry Wives of Windsor, and their gamble paid off. Exciting and risk-taking productions like this one, that successfully draw on unexpected elements to augment Shakespeare’s work, will ensure that both Bard on the Beach and the Bard himself will remain relevant into the festival’s future.
The Merry Wives of Windsor will be playing on the BMO Mainstage in Vanier Park, Tuesdays to Sundays, until September 20. Tickets can be purchased by contacting the box office at 604-739-0559 or by visiting Bard’s website at www.bardonthebeach.org. For a complete schedule of performances, please visit Bard’s Schedule page.
Disclosure: Lauren Kresowaty is reviewing this 2012 summer’s Bard on the Beach season in exclusive for Hummingbird604.com, and as such, she attended this performance (and will attend the rest of the season) on media tickets kindly provided by Bard on the Beach. No review is requested from either of us, nor a favorable one is expected either (in the case of a review actually being written). As always I (Raul) retain full editorial control on anything published on my site.
Lauren Kresowaty (NiftyNotCool) is a writer, theatre artist, and blogger based in East Vancouver. She posts weekly on her personal blog, NiftyNotCool.com, and tweets from @niftynotcool. Lauren is currently working on an adaptation of the Greek tragedy “The Libation Bearers” for her friends in Rice & Beans Theatre and following her imagination wherever it leads. You can get in touch with Lauren by commenting on a post on her site or following her on twitter.
