The Merry Wives Of Windsor
Dates of performance
January 1969
Overview
Sir John Falstaff, short of money as usual, comes to Windsor with his disreputable hangers-on-Pistol, Nym and Bardolph. He decides to swindle two wealthy burghers, Page and Ford, by seducing their wives, “…they shall be my East and West Indies, and I shall trade to them both”
To these lively ladies he writes identical love-letters, which they compare, and are so affronted by his impudence that they plan to be revenged on him, without telling their husbands.
Page and Ford, however, have already heard of Falstaff’s intentions from another source, and Page is mildly amused and confident of his wife’s virtue, but Ford, susceptible to insinuations of this kind, explodes into absurd jealousy and is determined to find out the truth in his own way.
Twice Mistress Page and Mistress Ford trick Falstaff into meeting with one of them, and each time the assignation ends abruptly and comically and as a humiliating experience for Falstaff.
The Merry Wives then disclose the whole intrigue to their admiring husbands, and a third and final meeting is planned in /Windsor Forest at midnight. Villagers and school children disguised torment and make fun of Falstaff, who admits his disgrace and failure.
But Falstaff is not the only dupe. Page and his wife have a pretty daughter, Anne, who for mercenary reasons Page tries to marry to a timid and ridiculous simpleton, Slender, who is championed by his kinsman Justice Shallow and a Welsh schoolmaster, Parson Evans. Mistress Page has her own plan for her daughter’s marriage to Dr. Caius, a Frenchman, whose housekeeper, Mistress Quickly, was a crony of Falstaff’s in his more preposterous days, and acts as pander and help to all suitors
Cast List
| SIR JOHN FALSTAFF | BERNARD BROWN | |
| FENTON | A young gentleman | CHRISTOPHER GALLOWAY |
| SHALLOW | A Country Justice | MICHAEL DR IN |
| SLENDER | Cousin to Shallow | GLYN DAY |
| FORD | PETER CURTIS | |
| PAGE | BRUCE ADDISON | |
| SIR HUGH EVANS | Welsh Parson | TIMOTHY HEALE |
| DOCTOR CAIUS | French physician | RONALD FRANCE |
| HOST OF THE GARTER INN | DON MAQUIRE | |
| BARDOLPH | Followers of Falstaff | DOUGLAS PERCIVAL |
| PISTOL | Followers of Falstaff | RON FENTON |
| NYM | Followers of Falstaff | BARRIE EVERARD |
| ROBIN | Page to Falstaff | ALEXANDER BICKET |
| SIMPLE | Servant to Slender | CRAIG CURTIS |
| RUGBY | Servant to Doctor Caius | MICHAEL BURKE |
| JOHN | Servant to Mistress Ford | BOB SCOTT |
| ROBERT | Servant to Mistress Ford | TONY BENT |
| MISTRESS PAGE | Wife to Page | CECILIA SONNENBERG |
| MISTRESS FORD | Wife to Ford | MAGARET HEALE |
| ANNE PAGE | Daughter to Page | DOROTHY SCOTT |
| MISTRESS QUICKLY | Servant to Dr. Caius | RENE AHRENSON |
| ATTENDANTS, TOWNS PEOPLE AND CHILDREN | HAZEL SCOTT, ANN LOW, BERYL BERMAN, PADDY SCHIILDER, MICHAEL VAN DRUNEN, QUINTUS HAHNDIEK, NICHOLAS BICKETT, DIANA PERCIVAL, PHILIP PERCIVAL, CAROLINE HEALE, TONI MANASSE , SANDER HAHNDIEK |
|
Creative List
| STAGE DIRECTOR | DAVID SALTON |
| STAGE MANAGERS | ALASTAIR SHEDDON & AVRIL BEE |
| ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS | BERYL BERMAN & MICHAEL BURKE |
| SET DESIGN | LESLIE FRENCH |
| PROPS | BART VAN DRUNEN |
