Theatre review: The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC/RST)

Known for being particularly good with some of the lesser-loved Shakespeares, Blanche McIntyre returns to Stratford-upon-Avon for the new RSC regime's first season. And in the first half at least, The Merry Wives of Windsor justifies its place as very few people's favourite: While the popular myth of Elizabeth I demanding to see Falstaff in love seems very unlikely, it does feel probable that this Henry IV spin-off was written because of popular demand, and its mix of characters from a very different world with a whole bunch of new comic foils begins as a tangle of plots, tricks and misunderstandings. There's even a very tedious version of the Twelfth Night subplot about convincing two different types of idiot that the other wants to duel them to the death, which even the characters get openly and mercifully bored with and ditch after the first couple of acts.

Once things get a bit more settled events resolve themselves into two comic plots involving the titular wives, Mistress Page (Samantha Spiro) and Mistress Ford (Siubhan Harrison.)

The delusional Sir John Falstaff (John Hodgkinson) believes he can easily seduce both of them, and scam them out of some cash in the process. But the two are friends, and when he sends them identical letters they decide to pretend to accept his propositions, and put him through a series of humiliations. George Page (Wil Johnson) trusts his wife implicitly but Frank Ford (Richard Goulding) makes himself an unwitting second target for the plot, as his suspicions make him set up a sting of his own that only leads to trouble.

This is a modern-dress production with specific nods to things like this summer's Euros, but to be honest I wasn't sure why Robert Innes Hopkins' design, whose colour palette doesn't shy away from mustard as it is, hasn't gone the whole hog and taken its back to the 1970s, as there's a definite feel that we're in the archetypal '70s sitcom here, complete with comedy Welsh vicar and heavily-accented Frenchman. Falstaff himself probably thinks he's going to be in a sex farce but has a different kind of sticky mess in store for him.

While the Falstaff in this play isn't quite the same as the one in the Henries, Hodgkinson's version isn't entirely like either: Notably, he doesn't play him as particularly old - there's definitely still a spring in his step, and while he's overweight he's not grotesquely so. We first meet him in a tailored suit, coming across as a populist politician who perhaps exaggerates his own wealth so has a few dodgy schemes in place to make up the difference. McIntyre's production keeps things light so we don't get the sense that he might tip over into something more dangerous, but if they'd chosen to go in that direction it wouldn't have felt like a stretch: You definitely don't feel any sympathy for his well-deserved comeuppance.

Frank Ford's confusions and humiliations are entirely his own fault as well, but Goulding plays him with such affable confusion that it makes him a bit easier to forgive (although the ease with which he is forgiven is another thing that makes this feel like the '70s would be a good fit.) For the Pages, it's their daughter Anne (Tara Tijani) who provides a subplot, as her parents each have a different candidate to marry her off to, neither of whom is her own choice, Fenton (John Leader.)

The eventual final setpiece that both gives Falstaff a final kick, and gets the other suitors out of the way, sometimes feels like a damp squib after the earlier scenes dispatching of Falstaff in a laundry basket and in drag, but in McIntyre's hands is rightly one of the highlights of the show alongside them. And the production also nicely ties up the way Slender (Patrick Walshe McBride) has trouble mustering any enthusiasm for wooing Anne himself, when he's (understandably, tbh,) chuffed to find himself accidentally married to Tadeo Martinez' Robin.

As for the merry wives themselves, Spiro is of course known for her comic chops but Harrison matches her well - you really buy their glee at the chaos they cause. These couples also seem a little bit further apart in age than they're usually cast; on the one hand it makes sense of George implicitly trusting his wife because he's known her too long and too well to doubt her, while the younger Frank is more foolish. But it also seemed to add something to the women's friendship as well - these are women who've chosen each other as kindred spirits, rather than housewives who probably grew up together and are friends by default.

McIntyre's gift for bringing to life some of the more flawed Shakespeare plays isn't enough to make this one come out of the gates all guns blazing, as there's rather too many pins to gradually set up. But once that's done and she can start knocking them down again this really comes into its own, continuing to justify the artistic directors' opening their season without any of the obvious big-hitters.

The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare is booking in repertory until the 7th of September at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Running time: 2 hours 55 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan.