We went to see The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Shakespeare Theatre last night.  It’s a curious play, as Shakespeare resurrected Sir John Falstaff from his Henry IV plays that take place in the 1400s and time-traveled him to the Elizabethan era in the 1600s.  The Shakespeare Theatre production has the play set right after World War I, although the temporal setting has very little to do with the plot.

The play has a larger number of characters than a Shakespeare play typically has, which makes it difficult to keep them all straight and fully develop their personalities.  The play has also been characterized as being the least romantic of his comedies.  We didn’t find the play to be one of William’s stronger efforts, and the production suffered a bit from this.  The main plot where Falstaff is trying to seduce the two wives in order to later blackmail them as an income source was well done.  The subplot of a daughter and her three suitors (her preferred one being one that neither parent favored, of course) was underdeveloped, although I couldn’t tell whether that was due to the play itself or the production.

All in all, the actors were excellent (especially Falstaff and the two wives).  The play was engaging and light-hearted and amusing.  The production was well done, and it was definitely worth an evening’s entertainment.