{"id":10576,"date":"2024-05-17T19:14:41","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T19:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pashakespeare.org\/?p=10576"},"modified":"2024-05-17T19:14:41","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T19:14:41","slug":"norman-lear-meets-shakespeare-in-the-merry-wives-of-windsor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pashakespeare.org\/press\/norman-lear-meets-shakespeare-in-the-merry-wives-of-windsor\/","title":{"rendered":"Norman Lear Meets Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Steve Siegel<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

There are quite possibly more convoluted revenge plots and seduction fantasies in Shakespeare\u2019s farcical<\/span> The Merry Wives of Windsor<\/span><\/i> than in an entire season of TV\u2019s <\/span>The Real Housewives.<\/span><\/i> The jealousy, distrust, and games of mental chess that course through the lives of these merry Elizabethans would all be familiar to their modern-day New Jersey or Beverly Hills counterparts. In many ways, this rollicking comedy of marriage, sight gags, and witty repartee anticipates the contemporary vibe of a modern-day TV sitcom.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First published in 1602,<\/span> Merry Wives<\/span><\/i> is considered one of Shakespeare\u2019s lesser-regarded works among literary critics. Due to its publication date, most commentators on Shakespeare consider it to be a mid-career play, written while the author was at the height of his powers, roughly simultaneously with <\/span>Hamlet<\/span><\/i>. Yet others suggest it is a much earlier work, pointing to its crude style and outdated topical references\u2014some going back to the 1580s.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Crude style and outdated references aside, <\/span>Merry Wives<\/span><\/i> has always been an audience favorite. Legend has it that the play was written at the request of Queen Elizabeth I, who was so enamored by the character of Sir John Falstaff after seeing him in <\/span>Henry IV, Part 1 <\/span><\/i>that she requested he be featured in another play. While Sir John stars as the play\u2019s loveable rogue, it is the women who pull the strings in Shakespeare\u2019s comedy about the hijinks of the suburban middle class.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s much about <\/span>Merry Wives<\/span><\/i> that make it unusual in the Shakespeare canon. It is his only play that he sets in his own era: England in the 1590s. Most of Shakespeare\u2019s plays deal with aristocratic life or heroic figures, yet here he creates a comedy about the \u2019burbs. In fact, one can easily imagine the wealthy mistresses Page and Ford hanging out by a Center Valley backyard pool, sipping mimosas while conjuring their plot of revenge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Merry Wives <\/span><\/i>director Matt Pfeiffer, now in his 25th season with PSF, gets that contemporary connection. \u201cThe elevator pitch on the play is that it\u2019s the original sitcom. That\u2019s definitely the kind of production I want to lean into. There\u2019s a lot of Norman Lear in the play in that it is a suburban comedy that actually ends up getting into some very potent commentary on gender, marriage, and class dynamics.\u201d Although the play is in five acts, its structure forecasts that of a classic 1970s three-act sitcom.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First, we are introduced to the main plot, which is usually a problem the main character or characters must address. Fat, disreputable Sir John Falstaff, down on his luck, decides to restore his fortunes by seducing the wives of two wealthy citizens, and sends mistresses Page and Ford identical love letters. The wives discover his double dealing and set about a plan of revenge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a subplot, the Pages’ daughter Anne is pursued by three suitors. She is in love with Fenton, but her parents have in mind two other choices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the second act of a classic sitcom, the characters attempt to solve the problem but usually make it worse. Ford has heard of Falstaff’s plan and decides to test his wife’s fidelity. He pays Falstaff to seduce his wife on his behalf, twice almost catching them together. The wives, however, are aware of the ruse, and trick both Falstaff and Ford.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the third act the main plot line is resolved, the characters return to the status quo, and all is made well. Falstaff is lured to a comical nighttime rendezvous, is publicly humiliated, and Ford admits his folly. Anne marries her chosen suitor, Fenton.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is always a challenge to make Shakespeare\u2019s plays accessible to modern sensibilities. Not only is there Shakespeare\u2019s language to deal with, but also scores of references to issues of the day that have long been forgotten. Yet in every play Pfeiffer has directed at PSF, he has managed to scale that wall. \u201cMy general belief is that these plays are living, breathing documents,\u201d he says. \u201cSure, there is some elevated poetry that would have been more familiar with his audiences, but there are basic observations about human experience that endure.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pfeiffer\u2019s own experience with<\/span> Merry Wives <\/span><\/i>makes him something of a triple threat. In addition to directing this season\u2019s production, he has been involved in each of PSF\u2019s two previous productions of the play. He played the character John Rugby in 1999, and was assistant director in the 2010 production, directed by Jim Helsinger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to see myself and my own experience in Shakespeare\u2019s work, and try to convey that on a very human level to a 21st century audience,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as Archie Bunker is Lear\u2019s most famous \u201cloveable rogue,\u201d so it is with Shakespeare\u2019s Falstaff. But Pfeiffer had other ideas for the Sir John character. \u201cI was trying to imagine who could come into a suburban town in 1970s America and cause a big ruckus,\u201d he says. \u201cI looked at Falstaff as kind of an Elvis figure\u2014 you know, like a traveling Vegas road show act\u2014in an attempt to remix Shakespeare\u2019s language and world into a kind of 1970s American icon. One of my core images is Mr. Page standing over an open grill with a funny hat and wearing a \u2018kiss the chef\u2019 apron.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even the music is Elvis-inspired. Pfeiffer will again collaborate with Alex Bechtel on the score, as the two have done in <\/span>The Two Gentlemen<\/span><\/i> of Verona<\/span><\/i> in 2014 and<\/span> A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/span><\/i> in 2021. \u201cScott Greer, who plays Falstaff, is a fantastic guitar player and singer. We\u2019re trying to take advantage of his love for Elvis,\u201d says Pfeiffer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet true to a Norman Lear sitcom, <\/span>Merry Wives<\/span><\/i> is not without social commentary. After all, here\u2019s a play about wives asserting their control over a town and the men in their lives. And then there is Anne, who ends up marrying the suitor of her own choice, not of her parent\u2019s. \u201cThis is definitely Shakespeare\u2019s fullest refutal of the accepted practice of arranged marriage,\u201d says Pfeiffer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Be that as it may, the play is truly meant to be light summer entertainment. \u201cUnlike Shakespeare\u2019s three great comedies, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, and Much Ado About Nothing, which aspire to grapple with life and death in a way that\u2019s most profound,<\/span> Merry Wives <\/span><\/i>is designed to be a romp. And in that spirit you want to present it in as vibrant a way as possible,\u201d says Pfeiffer.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Steve Siegel There are quite possibly more convoluted revenge plots and seduction fantasies in Shakespeare\u2019s farcical The Merry Wives of Windsor than in an entire season of TV\u2019s The Real Housewives. The jealousy, distrust, and games of mental chess that course through the lives of these merry Elizabethans would all be familiar to their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNorman Lear Meets Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor - Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pashakespeare.org\/press\/norman-lear-meets-shakespeare-in-the-merry-wives-of-windsor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Norman Lear Meets Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor - Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Steve Siegel There are quite possibly more convoluted revenge plots and seduction fantasies in Shakespeare\u2019s farcical The Merry Wives of Windsor than in an entire season of TV\u2019s The Real Housewives. 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