SEE Magazine
Copyright © 1998. All Rights Reserved.
ON STAGE
BY SCOTT LINGLEYREVIEW
The Merry Wives of Windsor
In front of City Hall
Weekdays at 12:15 p.m. through July 17If it's not one thing, it's another. Either your production of a Shakespeare comedy is sullied by rains that would drown the cast of The Ten Commandments or you're afflicted with beautiful weather that brings legions of squealing youngsters to Edmonton City Hall to partake in the capacious wading pool. So, it would seem, was the fate of the Free Will Players Young Company at its inaugural lunch-hour performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor on the marble steps in front of city hall.
But you know, they persevered, which is the lot of young artists in these hard-currency, bottom-line times of ours. If you want to share your gifts with the world, you have to endure many indignities. Like a non-existent budget, for instance. The cast of Wives was obviously not swimming in a luxurious pool of money for this production; to compensate, they seemed to elevate the fact, dressing the motley collection of boobs that make up the dramatis personae like hosers, right down to the six-packs and Pil hat sported by Ford (Matt Kowalchuk). They also did without any sets and relied on only a couple of props to assist the progress of the tale.
The action of the play centres around the corpulent Falstaff (Clinton Carew, pillow-packed), a bumbling blowhard who has designs on both Mrs. Ford (Nicole Grainger) and Mrs. Page (Christine Daniels). The eponymous - and unimpressed - wives decide to have a little sport with Falstaff, playing on his natural greed and cowardice to punish him for his attempted venery. The jealous Mr. Ford gets wind of Falstaff's plans and procures a disguise to bring down a little of his own revenge, Bard-style.
The play has been boiled down to its essential components to fit into lunch hour, the cast reduced to a number manageable by five actors, though things do get a bit confusing until you figure out a hat change is a character change.
The young actors - Rob Monk makes five - in the cast had a lot of emoting to do to be heard over the tumult from the wading pool and to manage the frenetic pace of a sitcom-length Wives. Luckily, they seemed full of emotive energy. Carew, in particular, captured something of Falstaff's undignified dignity and was tossed repeatedly down those stone steps without ever once pausing to nurse his ribs.
So go, take your lunch and a little money for the collection hat, and take in a little live theatre in the sun (if there is any sun). Oh, and here's a tip: sit close. Those little kids are loud.
(Last week I accidentally misidentified actor Glenn Nelson as Ron Nelson in a review of Free Will Players' ongoing Julius Caesar. It's nice to be recognized for a fine performance, but better yet when your name is spelled right.)
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