The Merry Wives of Windsor
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
After the RSC’s recent production of Loves Labours Lost I went to this production with some trepidation rather fearing that it might be set in a far eastern village with a retired Sumo wrestler as Sir John Falstaff, a casino as the Garter Inn and Sir Hugh Evans a Lithuanian doctor. I need not have worried. This production, ably directed by Blanche McIntyre, is set in Windsor, the Garter Inn is the Garter Inn and Sir Hugh Evans is a Welsh clergyman. Robert Innes Hopkins’s set for this production is effective and functional, with an upstage revolve housing the various buildings with lots of clever detail, unlike the predominantly merely decorative one expensively created for Loves Labours Lost.
The play was originally called Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor and this title more accurately matches this production. Whether or not the story is true that Queen Elizabeth asked Shakespeare to write another play with Falstaff in it, there must have been a lot to please her. Women are clearly in charge. The inn is named after the Order of the Garter, Anne Page rejects the suitors others have chosen for her and instead choses what she wants to do; she is not someone else’s property to be disposed of as they might wish.
John Hodgkinson as Falstaff in his blue padded suit makes clear that he is a sucker for serial gullibility, seeming oblivious to the tricks that others are playing on him. He doesn’t notice any of the obvious signs that Mistress Ford and Mistress Page are simply manipulating him and Hodgkinson shows that he is so obsessed with gaining money that he mindlessly falls for every trap laid for him. The gulling of Falstaff theme is balanced in this production by the Fords’ treatment of their daughter as property to be married off to whomever they want.
Slender is usually the least interesting of the suitors but Patrick Walshe McBride’s character is a delightfully foppish, exuberant, gawky, physically uncoordinated and reluctant suitor who is delighted at the end that he has been ‘married’ to a dishy young man. Ian Hughes as Sir Hugh Evans and Jason Thorpe as the dentist Dr Caius are fun to watch, but it is Slender who delights us.
My only disappointment was in the portray of Anne Page (Tara Tijani) and Fenton (John Leader). In a play consisting predominantly of prose, unusual for Shakespeare, the moral worth and superiority of Anne and Fenton is portrayed by their verse. For the moral patterning of the play to work perfectly the true love of Anne and Fenton, opposed to the tainted and ridiculous aspirations of the other suitors, needs to attract the audience’s empathy. It didn’t mine.
I’ve often felt in previous productions that the merry wives aren’t very merry. Here Mistress Page Samantha Spiro) is truly merry, sharing a close bond with her bosom friend Mistress Ford (Siubhan Harrison). They have fun together and so the audience has fun too.
The Herne the Hunter pageant at the end of the play, a kind of tacked-on bit of spectacle and entertainment for the audience, is mercifully brief, leading effectively to the plot’s conclusion.
Commentators on early productions mentioned what fun it was and how much they laughed. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
Again, your review reminds me of the detail of this production of Merry Wives, and how much we enjoyed it. John Hodgkinson was very funny as Falstaff. But curiously, I actually preferred the previous RSC production of Merry Wives in 2018. Somehow, I think David Troughton’s portrayal of Falstaff in 2018 was more believable, and therefore funnier.
You are right about the portrayal of Slender in this 2024 production – absolutely stunning performance by Patrick Walshe McBride.
A hugely enjoyable production, with much to commend it (like the simple revolving set). But I preferred the 2018 production with David Troughton taking the lead.
Many thanks for this review, Peter. Again, interesting to read your reactions, and to be reminded of a great show.
Jerry