Shakespeare BASH’d is back at the Victory Café again for Toronto Fringe this year, with a bawdy good fun production of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, co-directed by James Wallis and Catherine Rainville.
While the infamous drunken sot Sir John Falstaff (Sean Sullivan) schemes to get into the petticoats of Mistresses Ford (Suzette McCanny) and Page (Julia Nish-Lapidus), Mistress Quickly (Lynne Griffin) plays on the hearts and wallets of three prospective suitors vying for the hand of Miss Anne Page (Jade Douris) – and makes a pretty penny while doing so. Ford (Andrew Joseph Richardson) wrongly suspects his wife of infidelity and hatches a plan of his own to catch her out. The women are the wiser, and set the plans of all scheming men astray.
Merry Wives has a great, fun, rollicking ensemble, which rolls out this tale with great speed and dexterity. Stand-outs include Griffin (who Lost Girl fans will recognize as the Aswang lady Halima in season 1’s “Food for Thought”), who is a delight as the cunning Mistress Quickly, with a mischievous twinkle in her eye as she amasses a bosom full of cash. Sullivan’s wayward knight Falstaff is all lust and bravado, with shades of Jack Nicholson, ever with some unsavoury plot on his mind – even as each of his machinations fall to pieces. McCanny and Nish-Lapidus make a fine pair as Mistresses Ford and Page, the not so desperate housewives of Windsor who prove themselves as resourceful as Mistress Quickly – and more than a match for the silly men. Richardson is hilarious in Ford’s righteous indignation and plotting over a perceived betrayal from his wife; and Zachary Parkhurst is a laugh riot as the barely understandable, pompous suitor Dr. Caius.
With shouts to costume designer Amanda Shaw and Simon Rainville for the music.
The ladies rule in this hilariously funny tale of scheming, revenge and shenanigans.
The Merry Wives of Windsor continues every day for the rest of this week at Victory Café: Wednesday – Saturday at 7 p.m., with a final performance on Sun, July 12 at 5 p.m. Get your tix ahead of time for this one, folks – and leave yourself plenty of time to get a good seat and a pint.
life with more cowbell 