The Merry Wives

by William Shakespeare

seen at the Rose Theatre, Kingston upon Thames on 23 March 2016

The usual title The Merry Wives of Windsor has been abbreviated in this production from Northern Broadside and the New Vic (Stoke on Trent) as the action has not only been moved forward in time to the 1920s but also moved geographically to the north of England. Local references have been altered accordingly - 'the fat woman of Ilkley' rather than of Brainford; Slender to marry Ann Page in Skipton rather than Eton, and so forth.

Barrie Rutter plays Falstaff and directs the production, which is firmly in the British farce tradition, broad brushed and raucous. The characters are close to stock figures of fun - the women wise, the husbands foolishly lax or foolishly jealous, Falstaff incorrigibly self-confident, the others various sorts of hangers on, and the young couple romantic but almost without personality. All this is emphasised by the acting style, which is direct and noisy.

Unfortunately the performance did not immediately engage the audience; perhaps the theatre itself, though inspired by 16th century architecture, is not a sympathetic space when the house is not full. At any rate, in the first half it seemed that the cast were at times straining for effect; and of course the language is old-fashioned in a way that can make it laborious to set up the jokes. In the second half laughter came more easily, though the cross-language obscene punning of the Latin lesson was not really effective (despite coaching in the progamme notes).

A further consideration is that there might really still be a faultline between northern and southern styles of humour. The whole play was given in thick northern accents (apart from Doctor Caius' deliberately ludicrous French accent and Parson Evans's Welsh). This made the verbal fireworks at times hard to follow, but also encouraged the almost slapstick style of delivery. Mistress Page and Mistress Ford laughed uproariously at their own cleverness, but it was something of a spectacle rather than an invitation to share the joke.

Good fun as a knockabout farce, but strained at times.