The Merry Wives of Windsor

RSC at Birchwood Leisure Centre

By GARETH DUNNING

IT is rare that you get the chance to see the Royal Shakespeare Company outside of Stratford and judging by the packed houses at Birchwood last week it is a popular move.

The RSC performed two of the lesser known plays, Coriolanus and The Merry Wives of Windsor, on alternate nights.

The Merry Wives may not be one of the Bard's more popular plays and it is certainly far from his best - but an average Shakespeare play remains an impressive display and the language and wordplay are terrific.

It is a classic farce with Richard Cordery excellent as the hapless Sir John Falstaff - whose goal throughout the play is to bed the two merry wives, Mistress Page and Mistress Ford - and who ends up sprawling in a ditch after his plots backfire.

The comedy and plot revolves around Falstaff, an enormous man, who is led on by the two wives leading him to various humiliations including dressing as a witch, and being thrown into the Thames.

The play ends, as is often the case with Shakespeare, with a classically happy ending and a standing ovation.

This was an excellent production and very well received.