By Timothy Ruppert
With their current production of William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor (1599), the redoubtable Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks company presents a must-see mélange of anachronisms, allusions, and non sequiturs delivered with the speed of the USS Enterprise traveling at warp nine. The outstanding creative team misses no opportunity to get the most out of this grand Elizabethan farce, and their joyousness and talent make Merry Wives one of the absolute best comedies that I have seen this year.
Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks has provided much more than pleasant afternoons beneath the canopies of elms and maples in the late-summer sun. Time after time, Artistic Director Jennifer Tober takes intrepid theatrical risks with the Bard’s canon and succeeds brilliantly. I have long admired Tober’s gift for bringing together remarkable, resourceful artists, and this production exemplifies that claim. Cat Aceto—who has very quickly become one of my favorite interpreters of Shakespeare in the city—directs a terrific cast through an expressly inventive take on Merry Wives. We find ourselves in a fascinatingly rendered temporal continuum that encompasses both the era of the Tudors and the age of MTV (as it was in those faraway days when the channel actually played music videos). Songs and dances abound, with the numbers ranging from Donna Summer, Sade, and Cyndi Lauper to Culture Club, Miami Sound Machine, and the Go-Go’s. Moreover, numerous references to Pittsburgh and its environs are peppered throughout, including mentions of Bloomfield, the Liberty Tubes, and the Monongahela River, into which John Falstaff is rather unceremoniously thrown. In lesser hands, such a production could fall victim to its own competing absurdities. This creative team, however, ensures that the revisions are purposeful and that the silliness never overwhelms the story.
Much of the mirth and vibrancy owes to the high-heartedness of the eight performers who comprise the cast. Cassandra Hackbart as Mistress Alice Ford and Christopher Rone as Mistress Margaret Page make hilarious foils to Joanna Getting’s ever-scheming, seldom-victorious Falstaff. Rob Masterson (Mister Ford and Shallow) and Álvaro Muñoz (Mister Page and Simple) are both excellent; note that Muñoz speaks most of his lines in Spanish, adding even more distinctiveness to a keenly original production. Allie Burns (Slender, Fenton, and Doctor Caius), Meredith Kokur (Anne Page and Mistress Quickly), and Ivy Mackinson (Pastor Evans, Pistol, and Maid) enthrall in their inexhaustible vivacity. Matt Calvetti leads the outstanding musical performances; Ricky Lyle provides wonderful costumes; and Samantha Kuchta makes sure that a troll doll and Mr. Potato Head find their way into one of Shakespeare’s happiest works. Lauren Scheller-Wolf (Stage Manager) and Alexandra Hellinger (ASM) see to it that a complex show carries forth flawlessly (including the immensely entertaining scene when the ‘fairies’ attack the luckless Falstaff).
After The Merry Wives of Windsor plays a second weekend at Highland Park, the show will migrate to various green spaces around the city, including Frick Park (September 18-20), Hazelwood Green (September 25-27), Riverview Park (October 2-4), and Westinghouse Park (October 9-11). Don’t allow autumn to arrive without seeing this beautifully illogical, fearlessly innovative farce.
—TR
For more information on Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks’ production of “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” please visit here.
