'The Merry Wives of Windsor' is not one of Shakespeare's best plays by any stretch, it's not even among my favourites of his comedies, with Falstaff's character writing being less appealing and complex than in 'Henry IV Parts 1 and 2'. It is though extremely entertaining, with lots of sparkling comedic dialogue, memorable characters and interactions and the final scene has heart. Any production from the Globe Theatre is always watched with big anticipation.
Mostly, this 2011 production of 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' meets the high expectations, though falls short of exceeding them. It is entertaining and accessible and a lot is great about the production. It also had room for improvement if the pacing was consistently tighter and if a couple of performances were up to the same level of the rest. 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' is not one of the best filmed Globe productions from 2008-present, but not one of the worst either.
Beginning with the good, this production is very pleasing to look at. Love the attention to detail in the costumes, while the lighting is never too dim or garish and the sense of time and place is decipherable. The filming again is intimate while opening up the drama enough to avoid claustrophobia. The staging is wonderfully merry in energy and also riotously funny in the humour without going over the top in delivery, yet there is a good deal of heart in the last act and Falstaff's treatment is not mean-spirited. Appreciated too that it didn't try too hard to appeal to wider audiences by being for example too reliant on senseless conceits or having a time period that doesn't gel.
A vast majority of the performances are extremely good. Christopher Benjamin made me laugh frequently, so good is his comic timing, but he and the production do wonderfully at making one feel pity for Falstaff rather than being grossed out by him due to being overdone to grotesque degrees. Andrew Havill channels Basil Fawlty here and it is an amusing and refreshingly bemused portrayal. Sue Wallace is knowingly manipulative and was having fun clearly, while Sarah Woodward and Serena Evans play their roles with charm and strong comic timing.
It's not a perfect production however. Did find some of the first act on the dull side with the production taking time to find momentum in the complicated plotting.
Ceri-Lyn Cissone and Gerard McCarthy are fairly bland in their roles, though the characters are not the most interesting in 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' and they did seem under-directed.
Overall, good but not great. 7/10.
