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The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] (Again) (American Shakespeare Center) @ The Blackfriars Playhouse
![The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] (Again) (American Shakespeare Center) @ The Blackfriars Playhouse](https://drpeterkirwan.files.wordpress.com/2023/05/complete-works.png?w=600)
Every now and again, I’ve been lucky to see a revival of an existing play that makes that play feel freshly written, as if designed for that company and that moment. The reworking of Death of a Salesman for an African American family; Theatre Wallay’s reworking of The Taming of the Shrew as a commentary…
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The Merry Wives of Whatsapp (Creation) via Zoom
The basic set-up of The Merry Wives of Windsor feels tailor-made for lockdown, at least in Creation’s retelling by Olivia Mace and Lizzie Hopley. This tale of a busy, prying neighbourhood, all up in one another’s business and living for gossip, translates well to a modern suburban Whatsapp group populated by messages from Shallow about the bins. Here,…
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The Merry Wives of Windsor @ Shakespeare’s Globe (archival recording)
In releasing its 2019 The Merry Wives of Windsor as one of its free YouTube premieres, the Globe justly celebrates one of its finest ensembles (who later in the year went on to perform in Bartholomew Fair). Elle While’s thirties-set production is a jolly, entertaining farce that treats the play with the light touch it deserves (albeit with the anti-immigrant…
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The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC) @ The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, via RSC Live
I’ll get this out of the way first; the opening sequence of the RSC’s The Merry Wives of Windsor is in competition for the worst thing I’ve ever seen on the RSC stage. Over the silhouette of a town was heard the voice of a messenger arriving at William Shakespeare’s lodgings, bearing a letter from the queen.…
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Ellen Terry’s Very ‘Merry Wives of Windsor’ @ Queen’s University Belfast
The most delightful part of academic conferences is always* the moment when academics get up to put on their own play. Liz Schafer’s contribution to the (now annual) British Shakespeare Association conference was her adaptation of Ellen Terry’s three-scene cut of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Terry’s playlet was a self-created vehicle for her own star turn as…
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The Merry Wives of Windsor @ Shakespeare’s Globe
So, finally, on to The Merry Wives of Windsor, the last of my three London plays this weekend and, in my opinion, the best. Not as inventive as Timon, nor as technically outstanding as Waves, it might seem an unlikely judgment, but Merry Wives did exactly what it said on the tin. By far the funniest production I’ve ever seen…
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Merry Wives: The Musical (RSC) @ The Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Yes boys and girls, it’s that time of year- it’s the Big Christmas Musical! While part of me was really looking forward to this evening- a Gregory Doran production, the star power of Simon Callow, Judi Dench and Alistair McGowan and the promise of a new take on what is probably my least favourite comedy-…
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Dr Peter Kirwan 