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[an error occurred while processing this directive] (none) The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare June 7 - October 7 Director: Lillian Garrett-Groag. Scenery: Michael Ganio. Costumes: Deborah M. Dryden. By Robert H. Miller Special to the Tidings "A sk me no reason why I love you" begins the identically-worded letter sent to both Mistress Page and Mistress Ford and signed: "Thine own true knight, by day or night, or any kind of light, with all his might, for thee to fight, John Falstaff." Ray Porter This is what sets the plot afoot in Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor," whose eighth presentation by Oregon Shakespeare Festival is now being aired in the Elizabethan Theatre. Does Falstaff try to kill two birds with one stone? Both Page and Ford are respectable married women who have a firm hold on the purse strings. He could hardly say that the real reason is money, the means to escape from his impoverished condition ("almost out at heels," he terms it) and perhaps set himself up as a member of the British bourgeoisie and, fittingly, become a burgher king. The wives connive in Falstaff's comeuppance. We howl at the hilarious humiliation he suffers at their hands. Yet not even his being dunked in the river Thames seems to dampen his ardor. He might consider himself spitefully used, but, after all, he does bring it on himself. There is a sub-plot involving Mistress Page's daughter, Anne, who is trying to avoid marrying either a French doctor or cousin of Justice Shallow. If "The Merry Wives of Windsor" is, as poet W. H. Auden contends, "Shake-speare's worst play," why have so many composers pounced on its potential for opera? There were Salieri (1798), Balfe (1838), Nicolai (1849), Verdi (1893) - his only comic one and his last - and Vaughan Williams' "Sir John in Love" (1929). Harold Bloom in "Shakespeare, The Inven-tion of the Human," is no kinder. "You can cram any fat man into a basket," he asserts, "and get a laugh. He does not have to be Falstaff, nor need his creator be Shakespeare. By the time that Falstaff, disguised as a plump old woman, has absorbed a particularly nasty beating, one begins to conclude that Shakespeare loathes not only the occasion but himself for having yielded to it." Legend has it that Queen Elizabeth I, so enamored with the character of Sir John Falstaff in "Henry IV" (Parts I and II), commanded Shakespeare to write a play about Falstaff in love, and to do so within two weeks. One must remember that theatrical patronage of the monarchy was crucial in this Elizabethan era. The Queen demanded entertainment, and it was the Lord Chamberlain's task to see that she got it. I like what Gareth Lloyd Evans writes in "The Upstart Crow," that "Shakespeare responded to the Queen's demand for a play and diminished Falstaff for her pleasure. She would have been uncharacteristically insensitive if her merriment had not been tinged with sadness." Lillian Groag, who gave us a brilliant "The School for Scandal" in 1998, feels something of this sadness. As director of the current OSF production of "The Merry Wives of Windsor," she ponders whether Falstaff will ever learn that he is not irresistible. But her preeminent concern is to give us "Merry Wives," the comedy, and with Ray Porter as Falstaff, the more's the merriment. She forges an innovative link with the presence of Henry V. The costume designer, Deborah M. Dryden, who pithily describes the play as about sex, money, and laundry, uses gorgeous floral fabrics in her costumes and some of the creations will make you smile. Look for the emphasis on money evident in the bag or pouch accouterment. I saw a model of Michael Ganio's set design, and it is exquisite and strikingly pastoral. A clever conception takes us into the Great Park of Windsor - I have a fond memory of a picnic there - for the midnight revel with fairies at Herne's Oak, at the end of the play, where Falstaff undergoes his final humiliation. "The Merry Wives of Windsor," by the way, is the only comedy in the canon whose action occurs specifically in England. (Undeterred, the New York Shakespeare Festival transposed its 1994 production in time and place to the California Gold Rush!) Let Jerry Turner, Artistic Director Emeritus, have the last word. Writing in the Winter/Spring 1990 "Playbill," he comments: "More than most plays of the Shakespeare canon, `The Merry Wives of Windsor' reflects the taste of the Elizabethan popular audience rather than the mind of the author." The Black Swan [an error occurred while processing this directive] (none) [an error occurred while processing this directive] (none) [an error occurred while processing this directive] (none) Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing