The only thing worse than trying to trick a woman is trying to trick two women. Sir John Falstaff learns that the hard way in Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor," performed by the Brigham Young University Theatre.
Living up to its name, "The Merry Wives of Windsor," directed by Barta Lee Heiner, rolls along at a merry pace as the audience meets each character in the play.Mistress Ford (Stephanie Foster Breinholt) and Mistress Page (Allison Phillips Belnap) immediately steal the hearts of the audience as they wittingly defuse Falstaff's (Jason K. Tatom) attempts to steal their hearts - and their money.
There is no lack of humor when mistresses Ford and Page "consult together against this greasy knight (Falstaff)."
Breinholt and Belnap resemble a pair of teenagers as they contrive mischievious methods of muddling Falstaff's best-laid plans to woo them.
Tatom is excellent as Falstaff, the overconfident, overweight, greasy knight who is so sure that mistresses Page and Ford cannot resist his charms. Tatom is a true knave in devising his way into the mistresses hearts and even more a knave in his creative accounts of why things never quite work out.
Tatom makes Falstaff likeable, yet repulsive enough that the audience eagerly awaits his next downfall.
John Michael Grant also does a superb job in his portrayal of Master Ford, the overly jealous husband of Mistress Ford. He comedic delivery is perfect, both when he swears to everyone that his wife is unfaithful and when he unabashedly admits his foolishness as Mistress Ford once again proves her worthiness.
The production does have one major difficulty however, in that the Shakespearean English accents are unusually hard to understand. The audience is left relying a great deal on context and stage action in deciphering the actors' and actresses' words. Although comprehension improves with the play, the audience is never comfortable enough with the language to entirely sit back and enjoy the comedy.
Perhaps the hardest character to follow is Doctor Caius (D. Aaron Dalton), the Frenchman. Compounding the problem is that Caius speaks broken English, sprinkled quite liberally with French. The result is line after line of nearly incomprehensible Frenglish.
To his credit, however, Dalton's stage presence and acting - not speaking - delight the crowd nearly every time he is on stage. His overanxious mannerisms are hilarious, whether the audience understands his words or not.
The scenery is cleverly done. The basic set is the outside of a two-story building. Action occurs on the balcony or at stage level, with simple tables and chairs indicating if the action is inside the house.
Houses and trees are lightly painted on the set to give the atmosphere of an entire neighborhood, not only one building. The design works remarkably well and does not detract from the production but adds an intangible aspect of community.