The Merry Wives of Windsor

This was Shakespeare but not necessarily as one would imagine!  Director Peter Boon’s production (although most of the text remained the same) was not altogether Shakespearian in its concept.  We, the audience seated in Eastbourne’s lovely Italian Gardens, were in our imaginations a studio audience watching four episodes of an amazing sitcom which produced laughs galore.  The characters were all there, many of them in almost up to date costume with a ruff here and there to get us back in the period in which the play was written.  Some up to date songs were included with choreography as well – all well carried out.

This concept really worked and warm-up TV Host American Marshall T. Marshall (Keith Smith) started the proceedings in truly rumbustious fashion encouraging us in no uncertain terms to enjoy what was going to be performed for us and we certainly did!  He warmed up each episode with a great deal of flim flam!

Ashley Jones is to be congratulated for the set he designed and built – two beautiful Elizabethan houses, one being The Garter Inn whose hostess was Helen Wallbridge, playing a very congenial hostess.  Sir John Falstaff enjoyed the hostelry with his gang amongst other amorous pursuits and was played magnificently by Neil Russell.  Throughout, the story remained the same as the original but with many comedic touches.

The Merry Wives themselves (Mistress Alice Ford and Mistress Meg Page –played by Becky Robinson and Claire Robinson) were very merry indeed!  Really great performances from them both.  Their husbands Mr Frank Ford (Calum Avery) and Mr George Page (Nick Carn) also portrayed their characters with aplomb.

The two justices (Shallow and Silence) were portrayed by women and Louise Ware and Melody Bertucci certainly did their parts justice!  -  sorry for the bad pun!  Jane Tingley was a delightful Mistress Quickly in every sense of the word, dashing hither and thither and being very quick on the uptake.

So many wonderful characters in this piece and all were absolutely ideal in this fast and furious production.

So much work has to be done to get everything needed for a theatrical production on this scale down to the Italian Gardens (not to mention having to take it all up again after the run!) and all involved in this and everyone carrying out behind the scenes work are to be congratulated.  The interval refreshments are also much appreciated which must take some organising.

Many thanks go to Director/Script Editor Peter Boon (Peter also delightfully played the lovely part of Peter Simple) and all his production team for bringing the Bard to this lovely setting once more.

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