Fans of Shakespeare and Renaissance historians alike will delight in the work that The Baited Bear Players have undertaken with "The Merry Wives of Windsor". Not only do they present the bard’s comedy in an impeccably staged adaptation, they have mastered the language and dialect of the period so authentically it feels as though you are watching the play right at The Globe Theatre. Director and dialect coach Douglas N. Honorof has done wonders with his amazing cast in transforming Teatro LATEA, an Off-Off Broadway Latino theater, into an English town full of vibrant, foolish, and cunning characters.
At first the accents are so heavy and pronunciations so different than what one is used to in a typical modern Shakespeare production, that the story is somewhat lost in the dialogue. However, the ear soon becomes accustomed to the diction and allows the audience to follow the story with more ease. This is where the fun truly begins. Nowhere is Shakespeare’s famous wordplay and double entendre used more vividly. The actors take advantage of the colorful language and physical comedy to tell the story of how Sir John Falstaff, a character pilfered from earlier Shakespearean histories, is bested by two merchants' wives. Sir John, a drunken and boorish soldier played by Al Foote III, connives to seduce the women into sharing their husbands’ fortunes with him. The wives, being close friends and clever women, see right through him and waste no time plotting their revenge.
Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, played charmingly by Eliza Simpson and Eleanor Philips respectively, are wickedly funny as they aspire to make a fool out of Sir John. They turn the gender stereotype of women being weak-willed right on its head. Other memorable characters include the jealous Master Frank Ford (David Kubicka), the jolly and unassuming Master George Page (Adam Zivkovic), the incoherent servant Simple (Josh Silver), the drunken Hostess of the town pub (Mara Gannon), and the opportunistic but well-intentioned Mistress Quickly (Ella Jane New). The latter not only becomes the wives’ intermediary for turning Falstaff into their pawn, but also acts as the go-between for a subplot involving the marriage of the Page’s daughter Anne.
The Baited Bear Players’ commitment to historical accuracy extends to the gorgeous costumes, designed by Caitlin Cisek, and the period music enjoyed during scene transitions, designed by Levi Morger. Once again, the accents must be applauded. There are no fewer than six different dialects performed throughout the show that display the spoken language of the different classes and nationalities of the sixteenth century. The Welsh Parson Hugh Evans (Nathan Krasner) is one particularly strange and foreign-sounding accent, no more understandable than the French Doctor Caius (Devin Doyle). These characters’ lack of intelligible speech are used to great comic effect. Other types of diction include a working class cockney used by several characters including Mistress Quickly, a courtly London accent used by the Pages and Fords, and Latin used in a grammar lesson gone awry.
While "The Merry Wives of Windsor" has concluded its run, look for The Baited Bear Players’ productions of "Romeo and Juliet" in winter 2014 and Ben Johnson’s "The Alchemist" in spring 2014. For more information, check out their website: https://baitedbear.org/
