Bard in the Park presents The Merry Wives of Windsor

Actors Ashley Gibson, centre, and Melissa Beveridge, at right, share a laugh at jealous husbands while playing Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, the wives in Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor.
PHOTO: Andrew Hudson

Both funny ‘strange’ and funny ‘ha ha,’ Bard in the Park’s June 11-16 performance of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor charmed audiences at Kew Gardens.

Director Sean Killackey says the play is Shakespeare’s only true farce, full of zany subplots, swordfights and silly romances, and wins a lot laughs from the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, one of the bard’s most celebrated characters.

Killackey thanked Community Centre 55 for another successful run of Bard in the Park, and said the Kew Gardens bandshell is a treat to perform in.

“It harkens back to the old times when acting troupes did everything,” he said, noting that everyone in volunteer cast doubles as stagehands. “And it’s outdoors. You have a playground, a forest, people doing yoga—the public park is being used as a public space, and it’s really nice to have that.”

To learn more about Bard in the Park, visit www.bardinthepark.com.

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