The Merry Wives of Windsor Review

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Jan Krueger

Pippa Guard

Greenwich Summer Literature

22 July 2008

The Merry Wives of Windsor Review

            William Shakespeare wrote a great number of plays in his career, though The Merry Wives of Windsor appears to be one of his only pure comedies.  Christopher Luscombe, director of the Globe’s recent production of Shakespeare’s famous comedy, seemed to have a real grasp on the humor in this prototype sitcom.  In particular the casting of Will Belchambers as Abraham Slender set the standards for which the rest of the play would follow.

            Belchambers played Slender as an over-the-top fop, who was ditzy in the extreme.  I thought this was an excellent character choice for him.  I had not imagined Slender as being so bubbly and effeminate a personality, but rather more of a dumb follower of his Uncle Shallow.  Belchambers played Slender as more of an innocent under the direction of others, rather than a scheming suitor.

            I thought the choice Belchambers made in playing Slender as an effeminate dandy was only one interpretation of the play.  I thought it added to the comedic effect of the production to have the homosexual undertones in Slender.  I thought this was most evident in Act 4, scene 2 when Master Ford is going through the clothing basket.  One change that was made to add comic effect was to have Ford himself pull out the clothes one by one, rather than the serving men.  The passing around of the corset, and Slender’s delight in finding himself with it, contributed even more to the comedy and helped to make Slender a more likeable character. 

A similar decision was made in favor of humor when, at the end of the play, Slender is quite happy to end up dancing with the postmaster’s boy.  Belchambers could have played Slender as much more upset about having been tricked out of marriage to Anne, but he instead plays him as enjoying the final dance with a man.  The tone could have been much darker had Slender been nothing but a scheming suitor.  The production went the way of comedy in most of those turning point decisions between light- and dark-hearted humors. 

            The costuming for Slender was slightly different than I had expected from reading the text.  Once again, his foppishness was unexpected.  I thought it worked very well in the production however. The use of the bright orange and green helped Slender to stand out more.  I felt when I was reading through the play that he was more of a forgotten tag along character, but the costuming was done in a such a way that that was in no way possible.  I also thought the colors added a nice juxtaposition of Slender’s bright colors against him being not so bright in the way of intelligence. 

            Slender’s lack of intelligence was especially evident in Act 3, scene 4 when he is attempting to woo Anne Page.  Shallow is pushing Slender into self-fashioning, but Slender seems to miss the point completely.  I thought the play between Peter Gale (Shallow), Ellie Piercy (Anne), and Belchambers was well rehearsed in their passing of the bouquet of flowers.  It was an excellent device by which to introduce more humor to the scene.  My favorite part of that scene was when Slender took back from Anne the flowers which he was supposed to have given her.  All of that movement and interaction with props is something that you could not get by simply reading the play.  Only by watching the performance could you get the added level of comedy that those flowers produced. 

            One thing that I did get the same interpretation from reading the play as by watching it was Slender’s lack of caring about whether or not he marries Anne Page.  Belchambers and I both saw this in the text: Slender is doing what his Uncle Shallow tells him to do, and is only self-fashioning to achieve a marriage, any marriage.  He is relying on the motions that his father has made, and if they happen to pan out, then he will be happy to follow through as directed. 

            The movement throughout the play was very important, I felt.  I was watching the differing gaits of the actors.  Slender in particular was interesting to me to watch.  He had a very prancing, mincing step, which I did not expect of him when reading the play.  I felt as though his bright orange shoes contrasted so sharply with his green tights that this light-footed gait was even more evident.  His costuming once again came into play with his movements.  His pluderhosen were shorter than the rest of the male characters’ and I was therefore more drawn to his gait.  I think I was also focusing on the way characters were walking because that is where my easiest view was.  Being a groundling, I was right there at their foot level.  That is not an experience or insight that I could have gotten by merely reading the play. 

            The fact that this was a live performance in the Globe had its own special addition to the performance.  For one thing, I had to be prepared for various distractions that are not present when reading a play or watching one in a traditional theater.  There were planes flying overhead, which meant that sometimes I could not quite catch what the actors were saying.  There were also the other audience members to be aware of.  People were constantly shifting and moving.  I was also free to, and sometimes required to, move about a bit.  Sometime I would stoop down beneath the stage to grab my water bottle.  When Philip Bird as Doctor Caius came by with his sword I had to keep dodging out of the way as he turned about.  I felt like this was an essential part of going to the live performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Globe.