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Get ready to immerse yourself in a play of sheer slapstick comedy this weekend as the Hillsdale College Tower Players perform William Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”
The play is a story of twists and turns, as two plots unfold in the town of Windsor. Shakespeare’s tale follows Sir John Falstaff in his greedy endeavors to seek out the love and affection of both Mistress Page and Mistress Ford eventually humiliate him into regretting his plan of seduction. All the while, Mistress Page’s daughter, Anne Page, is of marriageable age and courted by three suitors.
The Tower Players will perform the feel-good show tonight through Sunday, drawing especially on the Waylon technique and concepts of Unrehearsed Shakespeare, students said.
With the aid of senior dramaturge Caitlyn Hubbard, the director, Professor of Theatre George Angell, Lecturer and Costume Designer Bryan Simmons, and Technical Director Dave Griffiths, this year’s cast transformed into the characters of Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”
The drama will be up close and personal, consistent with the interactive manner in which the play was written.
“Don’t get freaked out if someone takes your hand or screams to your face or sits next to you,” junior Mark Keller said.
Shakespeare’s comedies have entertained millions of people with his clever word play, love scenes, complex plots, and many forms of mistaken identity. “Merry Wives” is one of Shakespeare’s more light-hearted plays. It continues the trilogy of Falstaff, who is also the knight in both plays of Henry IV.
“It is ridiculous –– I mean, the things that happen in this play are just insane,” said sophomore Katherine Denton, who plays the role of Anne Page. “I crack up at scenes I have seen probably seven or eight times now and every time I am in tears just watching these scenes.”
The play was said to have been written under the order of Queen Elizabeth, who wanted a performance which included Falstaff. Some scholars think that Shakespeare wrote the play in two weeks to celebrate the inauguration of knights into the Order of the Garter.
“It is almost sickening how ingenious he was,” said freshman Aaron Pomerantz, who plays the role of Master Fenton.
The Order of the Garter was established in 1348 by Edward III and is the oldest British orders of chivalry. The order consists of 24 knights, a king and a prince. The Knight of the Garter was not an inherited title, but a title earned with acts of valor and held until death.
“You could call Falstaff a protagonist of this play. That doesn’t mean he is the good guy. You are not rooting for him because of what he is doing –– you are just rooting for him because he is fun,” said junior Stephan Godleski, the play’s Sir John Falstaff. “Bad things happen to Falstaff and to the other characters, but in the end everything always works out.”
It is the love triangles and the natural greed that drive many of the characters within Windsor to resort to practical jokes in order to put people in their place.
“Shakespeare’s comedy, in this play, comes at the expense of the characters,” Pomerantz said. “You aren’t laughing because the characters are so witty and they say such brilliant things You are sitting there going ‘My god these people are so stupid.’”
Shakespeare’s use of the English language in this play is clever and delightful, twisting and convoluting communication between characters.
“It is among Shakespeare’s most difficult plays in terms of language,” Angell said. “It has a number of things that are subject matter that are not familiar to modern audiences. Almost every character in the play either misuses English or makes mistakes with it.”
“The Merry Wives of Windsor” combines the misuse of language and thick accents to showcase how versatile and delightful the English language can be. This is demonstrated by Sir Hugh Evans the Welsh priest, Caius the French Doctor, Master Slender –– who speaks nonsense throughout the play.
“The Elizabethan society was largely xenophobic,” Hubbard said. “The foreign characters get made fun of a lot and they don’t know what is going on because they don’t know what words mean and they are tricked into thinking that what is being said to them is compliment.”
Another important aspect of the play’s production is the costuming. In the Elizabethan era, classes were distinguished through fashion from the richness in the fabric to the size of a citizen’s ruff, or gathered collar. All were subject to the Elizabethan Sumptuary Laws. People who broke these clothing guidelines were fined or even sentenced to death.
Recreating Elizabethan fashion, Bryan E. Simmons, ecturer in theatre and costume designer, conjured a beautiful array of various costumes from the rich to the poor for the “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”
“It is interesting sometimes I will walk away from rehearsal without a fat suit on, just in my normal people clothes, and I will have my chin up and I will have a little bit of swag in my step. Just becoming him is a lot of fun. And there are a lot of things that I will never do, but we are on stage so I can do it,” Godleski said.
Godleski said Simmons was an amazing costume master, able to manipulate materials in new and creative ways. Simmons’ elaborate designs force actors to get further into their characters.
“I really like costumes because for me, at least with this show, it is almost half the character,” Keller said.
It always takes effort and energy to put on a theatrical production, and the college’s production of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” is no exception. Look for excitement, humour, and intricacy when you attend this Shakespearean masterpiece.
“And it is a whole hullabaloo of fun,” Hubbard said.