The Merry Wives of Windsor Review Shakespeare's Globe 2008

Genre: Comedy
Opened 18 June 2008
Written: William Shakespeare
Directed: Christopher Luscombe
Produced: Shakespeare's Globe
Cast: Christopher Benjamin (Falstaff), Serena Evans (Mistress Page), Sue Wallace (Mistress Quickly), Sarah Woodward (Mistress Ford)
Synopsis: The fat knight Sir John Falstaff imagines that Mistress Ford and Mistress Page are both taken with him and so, attracted as much by their husbands' money as their personal charms, he decides to woo them both. But the women are up to the old lecher's tricks and turn the tables on him with a series of humiliating assignations, midnight terrors and a very damp, extremely smelly laundry basket.

What the popular press had to say.....
FIONA MOUNTFORD for THE EVENING STANDARD says, "The best and freshest work I've seen at the Globe in several years." PAUL TAYLOR for THE INDEPENDENT says, "Highly entertaining production." CHARLES SPENCER for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "A sunny, funny and palpably affectionate production, cleverly designed by Janet Bird...This is one of the most enjoyable productions I have ever seen at the Globe and looks like the feel-good hit of the summer." SAM MARLOWE for THE TIMES says, "Making broad Shakespearean comedy funny for a 21st-century audience often feels a stretch. But in his hectically paced, sitcom-inspired production of Merry Wives, Christopher Luscombe succeeds triumphantly in doing not only that, but in making the play's multiple plot strands and every one of its characters, down to the most minor, ring out with joyous, bell-like clarity."

External links to full reviews from popular press
The Independent
The Daily Telegraph
The Times

Production photo by John Tramper