UPDATE: As of August 22, the remaining performances of Merry Wives are canceled due to an injury in the company. For more information, visit stlshakes.org.
Starting August 1, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s TourCo will present a condensed 90-minute adaptation of Shakespeare’s marriage comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor to 24 parks in the greater St. Louis area. Each production is free and accessible to the public, and welcomes families, communities, and theater lovers alike to enjoy the show.
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Directed by celebrated Shakespearean director Suki Peters, Merry Wives provides audiences with a ‘90s sitcom twist on the classic production. The play is a Shakespearan farce following a man named Falstaff who comes into a town and creates havoc by attempting to seduce two local women, Mrs. Page and Mrs. Ford.
“It’s what happens when people don’t talk to each other and just decide to go around behind each other’s backs. At the heart of it, that’s really what it’s about,” says Christina Yancy, who plays Mrs. Ford and Mr. Page.
The comedy is carried out by six actors, with the majority each playing at least two characters. Yancy, who also had roles in last year’s tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, says it takes some studying and research to play multiple characters in one production.
In order to make sure the characters have personalized walks, dialects, and ways of carrying themselves, Yancy says it helps to know who inspired the characters from the start. Early on in the rehearsal process, Peters told Yancy that her characterization of Mr. Page was inspired by Wilson from the ‘90s sitcom Home Improvement.
“Knowing that, I immediately started watching Home Improvement episodes, and because Wilson is such an iconic character from not seeing his face 90 percent of the time, it was really about understanding where his voice sits and what the purpose of his character is,” says Yancy.
Rae Davis, who also toured in last summer’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and plays Anne Page, Miss Quickly, and John Rugby in Merry Wives, says the production can be compared to popular sitcoms such as Full House and Family Matters. Their production is a humorous, family-friendly show, and Yancy says that no one is expected to be a “Shakespearean scholar” in order to enjoy it.
“It’s one of Shakespeare’s sillier shows, and it kind of removes the fear associated with Shakespeare and trying to figure out how to translate it into a modern understanding,” says Davis. “I think people will see a new side of Shakespeare with this kind of play.”
Before each show, actors will also present what TourCo calls a “living study guide”, which aims to increase audience performance literacy by providing both a plot description and a small snippet of the dialogue from the show so people are able to hear Shakespeare’s language beforehand.
“We just want people who will come out and want to be entertained, want to have a good laugh and lean into the farce that is Merry Wives,” says Yancy. “We keep it family-friendly…so we expect a lot of family, a lot of kids, and just people who want to have fun and have a good time and laugh with us.”
The tour includes 24 different parks, starting with Cherokee Street and closing with the Schroeder Park Amphitheater on August 27. A full list of dates and parks can be found on the festival’s website.
