Don't let English class fool you: Shakespeare is dead-on hilarious - plus he's the best sexual punster there ever was. If you're looking for witty one-liners that smack of sexual innuendo (and the girl you're after understands Elizabethan), see Tufts' production of The Merry Wives of Windsor in the Balch Arena and take note. Pirate a line or two from this tale and she'll croon: He gives me the potions and the motions! If you're lucky you might get promoted to sexy middleman between her terrestrial and celestial.
On second thought, don't let it get your hopes up too far. If you're a man, come to this play for instruction. Bring your notepad and scribble down the tactics of women-driven ploys to foil the one-track, money and testosterone-driven minds of men. In this comedy, the merry wives will teach you a lesson: before you think you've got her between the sheets, make sure you've read between the lines.
Male or female, The Merry Wives of Windsor will have you laughing aloud. Although Shakespeare wrote it to satisfy the Queen of England's fancy, director Anthony Cornish asserts that it is "full of modern resonance, not only in its comedy but also in its sexual politics." The language of the play is taken directly from the text. That is to say that it's full of labyrinthine metaphors, heady double-entendres, and at times mentally taxing verbosity. On occasion, you may get lost in the web of rhythms and rhymes. Don't be intimidated, though. With the help of the actors' talent, your ear quickly adjusts from 21st to 16th century mode.
The comedy comes from two connected plots. The latent plot revolves around Ms. Anne Page (Kristin Leahey), the apple of every man's eye. Along comes a motley cast of male characters in line to woo her. First we meet Slender (Jeremy Wang-Iverson), a hyperbole of nervousness, who is pressured by his elders to pursue her. A second suitor is Dr. Caius (David Medeiros), the French physician who haughtily asserts his candidacy as top-notch. His fervency upstages Slender's trepidation, and thus is only met with one rival: Sgt. Fenton (Matt Waterson), the man in uniform of ubiquitous female fantasy.
The manifest plot is whence the play derives its title. Mrs. Page (Rachel Evans) and her accomplice Mrs. Ford (Rebecca Russell) conspire to subvert the Dionysian glutton, Mr. Falstaff (Andy Roth), from his attempt to bed Mrs. Ford while her husband (Jesse Levey) is away from the house. With the help of the sugarcoated Machiavel of Mrs. Quickly (Melissa Holman) and the no nonsense sultry barkeeper (Jennifer Bien), they devise a ploy to thwart these 'horny men'. In doing so, they drive both Falstaff and Ford to the edge of their sanity. Tricked and subjected to humiliation, the two men (the jealous husband and conniving suitor) become pawns in the game of sexual checkmate.
Cornish highlights the humorous moments by stretching them to their quirkiest limits. In one memorable scene, we have the Rev. Evans (Marty Keiser) and Dr. Caius bouncing around wearing boxing gloves, throwing swift punches into the air. Things get crazy when an ordinary small country town turns into an Eden-esque boxing ring, wherein the men are turned into hedonistic buffoons. Rev. Evans and Dr. Caius - in hiked-up Umbroes and nylon stockings hoisted up by sock garters - capitalize on the burlesque. Keiser and Medeiros both do an extraordinary job heightening the humor - the former in one farcical scene depicting the holy man, in boxer drag, strumming a guitar to a song about "1,000 pansies," the latter with his perfect parody of the bombastic Frenchman, thick accent and all.
The performances of both Roth and Levey are indisputably the best in the show. Roth is a natural on stage, reciting his tongue-tied verse with ease. His fluid and versatile performance is the reason we become so engrossed in this play. Levey is over-the-top and hilarious as the jealous Ford, another favorite male casualty. Rooting for the women is Rachel Evans. With a grace similar to that of Roth, she robes herself in her character with no apparent struggle. It's a perfect fit and the seams don't show.
Overall the mechanics of the play run smoothly, though without much use of scenery or props. Costume design is of secondary importance, neither distracting nor particularly awe-inspiring. It is mainly due to the strength of the performances and the script of the play itself that the play is so enjoyable. The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy that combines the call-to-arms of de Beauvoir's feminism with the spunk of Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Albeit in favor of the 'second sex' and at the expense of the male ego, audiences will be pleased. No pain, no gain, right boys?
The production of The Merry Wives of Windsor continues at the Balch Arena Theater, November 2-4, at 8 p.m. Tickets for Thursday are $1, all other performances $5 with a valid Tufts ID.
