The The Merry Wives of Windsor
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MacNichol, Hoffmann, Ciulla
Photo by Craig Schwartz
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By January Riddle
Through the ages, critics have loved or hated Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. Some called it delightful; others pronounced it horrible. The meaning and purpose of comedy seems to account for much of the disparity of opinion. Some think the farcical humor beneath The Bard, while others attribute its simplistic, lowbrow attitude as a romping good time for audiences weary of the world’s major problems.
Director Paul Mullins belongs to the latter camp. His staging at The Old Globe Theatre makes for a lively melodrama set in the wild American west, where real men pack shootin’ irons and fancy women dance the can-can at the local saloon. Thanks to a skillful, enthusiastic cast and the talented designers—all of whom buy into the comedy with apparent abandon—the production more than justifies the transformation of time and place. It is a witty Shakespearean hootenanny full of motion and vitality, and it should invalidate all but the most puritanical scholar’s disapproval.
Like small town America (even today), Shakespeare’s Windsor is a place where everyone knows everybody’s business, where foreigners and city folks can never fit in. Mullins’ Windsor is exaggerated to caricature, from Ralph Funicello’s overstated sets and Dinitsa Bliznakova’s elaborate costumes to Christopher R. Walker’s outrageous sound design. The latter features mules braying off stage and the theme from “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.”
The story involves all three types, but not in a hefty, thought-provoking way. In this tale of deceit and jealousy, the good are cunning, the bad are wayward, and the ugly are just plain ridiculous. There’s parson Hugh Evans (made bold by Charles Janasz), Shallow, a justice of the peace (Jonathan McMurtry channeling a disquieting Wild Bill Hickok), his foppish city boy nephew (a very funny and nimble Sloan Grenz), a female saloon owner (Barbra Wengerd channeling Miss Kitty of Gunsmoke), and a French physician (Wynn Harmon derisively Parisian in over-the-top turquoise tails), each of whom contributes some spirit and personality to the town and the plot with two story lines.
The first is about suitors and the sought-after. Slender, a silly wag of a boy, wants to marry Miss Anne Page, a sweet but not stupid girl who stands to inherit a hefty sum.. Her father, George (a youngish Nat McIntyre), wants her to marry him too, as do his uncle Shallow and the parson. Anne’s mother wants her to marry the doctor. Never mind, Anne has her own plans to marry Fenton, a wild rebel boy who has no money and is a spendthrift. A clever girl, Anne finds a way to get her way.
The more madcap story line concerns the ambitions and exploits of two men, Falstaff and Ford, and their foiling and exposing by two women, Mistresses Ford and Page.
The lecherous John Falstaff in this production is a hefty mule-skinner (played exactly on the fine line between silly and crafty by Eric Hoffmann). When he sends the same love letter to two married women, he shows his clueless hand. The two objects of his counterfeit affection, Mistresses Page, Anne’s mother, and Ford (vivaciously played by Celeste Ciulla and Katie MacNichol) quickly trump his scam with a wacky hoax of their own. That the women’s outrageous deception actually works to expose not only Falstaff’s simplistic ruse but their husbands’ naďve scheming is a testament to some men’s blind foolishness.
One could not go far wrong by categorizing the characters in this play by gender. The men are all idiots who think women are gullible, and the women are all clever who think men transparent. In this play, the women are right, by the way.
The peculiar Frank Ford (smoothly wrought by Bruce Turk) makes an apt example. Somehow getting it into his head that his wife is cheating on him, he lays an obvious trap easily discovered and turned on him by the clever “little woman.” Turk’s bits with the false mustache are hilarious, and MacNichol’s bouncy charisma is delightful.
The love that makes the world in Windsor go ‘round can be called audacious, silly, farcical. It can also be called true to life today. Is there a parent today who has not experienced a willful child or a spouse who has not encountered the “green-eyed monster”?
The insecurities and foibles that brought on Elizabethan lovers’ little lies and tricks are not unfamiliar to modern lovers’ lives. They may have different settings, but the motivations echo through eons.
That is one reason this production is so engaging. Another reason? It’s just plain fun.
The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare plays through September 27 on the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Stage of San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park in repertory with All’s Well that Ends Well and Romeo and Juliet.
Curtain is 8 pm, Tues through Sun.
Tickets are $26-$64, with discounts for seniors, students and active military.
Reservations: 619-23-GLOBE or online at www.theoldglobe.org
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