Montana Shakespeare in the Parks: The Merry Wives of Windsor

Legend has it that William Shakespeare's knockabout romp, The Merry Wives of Windsor, was written as a royal decree from Queen Elizabeth I who demanded a play about 'Falstaff in love.' True or not, Shakespeare delivered with this mile-a-minute comedy which finds his best-known comic creation, Sir John Falstaff, transported out of the medieval King Henry histories and into Shakespeare's day. A deliciously silly, bawdy, and saucy farce the play centers on the machinations of two wealthy married women who, for their own amusement, pretend to respond to the advances of old Fat Jack, who has arrived in Windsor with little money but, as usual, with plenty of schemes.

Falstaff's attempts at wooing Mistresses Ford and Page seem to upend the entire town. Identities are mistaken, disguises are donned, and these 'merry wives' decide to have a little fun of their own when both pretend to fall for Falstaff's advances while landing the poor old knight into one hilariously convoluted situation after another while the jealous Master Ford goes nearly apoplectic on more than one occasion trying to catch his wife in a compromising position with Falstaff.

The only one of Shakespeare's plays to deal exclusively with contemporary issues and people of his time, this ripping good play features comic action which rarely slows and is populated by a group of eccentrics that we can still find in nearly every town today.

The Merry Wives of Windsor will be directed by MSIP Artistic Director Joel Jahnke.