Clarence Brown brings Shakespeare's royal romp to stage

Ashleigh Stochel, Suzanne Ankrum, and Neil Friedman, from left, will perform in Clarence Brown Theatre’s production of “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”

A rumor about an English royal always makes for media buzz. Even if the gossip's more than 400 years old.

Enter the tale of how William Shakespeare penned his comedy "The Merry Wives of Windsor."

Seems Queen Elizabeth I liked Shakespeare's John Falstaff, a key character in his plays about England's King Henry IV. She told Shakespeare she'd like him to write a play about Falstaff. But not just any play. The queen wanted to watch a play about Falstaff in love.

What the Virgin Queen wanted, she generally got. So Shakespeare wrote "Merry Wives" and set it in Windsor, the monarch's summer residence.

The University of Tennessee's Clarence Brown Theatre performs "Merry Wives" on select dates Feb. 24-March 13. The cast includes Clarence Brown resident artists and staff members, UT students and professional actors. Kate Buckley, a UT assistant theater professor and a founding member of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, directs the production.

The play may be 400 years old but its twists of love, revenge, jealousy, deception and mayhem could play well on today's reality television. In "Merry Wives," Falstaff, played by Clarence Brown resident artist Neil Friedman, is down on his luck. In debt, the old rogue devises a plot to quickly earn money. He decides to woo the wives of two wealthy men and get the women to give him money.

Of course that plan goes terribly wrong. The women - two "merry wives" - are Mistress Margaret Page (UT masters of fine arts acting student Suzanne Ankrum) and Mistress Alice Ford (MFA acting student Ashleigh Stochel). They discover Falstaff sent them copies of the same love letter. Angry he would think them dishonorable, they band together to teach Falstaff a lesson. In the course of the play, he hides in a basket of dirty laundry, gets tossed into the Thames and disguises himself in women's clothing.

"It's a great romp," says Buckley.

The director first considered setting the production in the mid-20th century but ended placing it in Shakespeare's time as originally written. Her idea for a modern time setting was because of the story itself.

"When I started reading it, it's Lucy and Ethel," she said, referring to characters played by Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance in the 1950 television comedy "I Love Lucy." "Lucy and Ethel have gotten themselves into a corner and it's how they are going to get out of it."

The play's Windsor setting and characters were more familiar to Queen Elizabeth - and likely to Clarence Brown theatergoers - than the bard's other comedies. "I think what's fascinating about 'Merry Wives' is that it's the only comedy that takes place in England during the time Shakespeare lived," Buckley says. "All his other comedies are set in Italy and or some remote island in the Mediterranean. This one takes place at home. So it's a real snapshot of what Shakespeare knew, what Shakespeare grew up with, the characters and the language of the people on the street."

The language of Shakespeare's play can wrongly put off today's would-be theatergoers. "I think they think they won't understand it, that the old English is too difficult for a contemporary audience's ear," Buckley says.

Not to worry. "Merry Wives" is "99 percent prose," says the director, and not the potentially trickier verse. Plus, the actors have a theatrical trick of sorts up their Elizabethan-styled sleeves.

"There's a little trick that Shakespeare theater people use in the very first minutes. … You slow down the language a bit in order for the audience to get used to the sound of the language," Buckley says. "Then you can speed it up but that allows the audience to get comfortable with the language."

Amy McRary may be reached at 865-342-6437.

© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
Want to use this article? Click here for options!

© 2011 Knoxville.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.