Only in DC! Bach and Frederick the Great

Adolph von Menzel, 1815-1905, Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci, 1852 with Carl Philip Emanuel Bach on  harpsichord, Carl Graun (standing, between two ladies on the left), Johann Quantz (far right) and Franz Benda (second from right), all portrayed in Theatre Royal Bath's The Source at Shakespeare Theatre Company/Wikipedia, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

To see British theatre on stage in Washington, one may go immediately to the Shakespeare Theatre Company's website and purchase tickets for the outstanding production by Theatre Royal Bath which has crossed the pond, bringing with it the troupe and a royal star who deliver one of the great performances of the season in Washington, D.C., its only U.S. venue. 

Sir Trevor Nunn (you do remember his Cats and Les Misérables?) directs.

The star is global winner Brian Cox and the show, The Score  by Oliver Cotton, based on a true encounter between Johann Sebastian Bach (Cox) and Frederick II, King of Prussia (Stephen Hagan) in 1747 when the two met in  Potsdam.

Real-life husband and wife, Brian Cox and Nicole Ansari-Cox are Anna Bach and Johann Sebastian Bach in Theatre Royal Bath's The Source at Shakespeare Theatre Company/By Theresa Castracane

Certainly, set designer Robert Jones and lighting designer Johanna Town must be students of Vermeer and his window works since they duplicate the painter’s haunting shadows and lighting in the opening scene with Bach and his wife, Anna (Cox's real-life wife, Nicole Ansari-Cox) seated inside their home in Leipzig, complaining about the outside clamor they hear emanating from the king's soldiers whose commotions upset residents. (Sophie Cotton is sound designer.) 

Bach is like a fuse waiting to be lit.  He’s unhappy, gruff and mad at the world.  His daughter (never seen) is ill, yet he must leave her and go visit the king who has summoned him to Potsdam. 

Anna pushes her husband out the door.

Like many artists who'd rather be doing most anything else, Bach resists visiting “your highness,” but, alas! The king wants to meet the musical genius.

In conversation, it's not long before Bach (1685 –1750) , the moralist and strict Lutheran, challenges the atheist king (1712-1786) to atone for his soldiers' rape of a blind 14-year-old girl in Leipzig, and the king responds, so what? "These things happen."

Bach is the good; the king, the bad.  Bach, morality; the king, unscrupulous, but, maybe, towards the end, scrupulsome? 

His father, Frederick William I, the "soldier king," had brought his son up "to be a man," treating him brutally, shunning his son’s interests in the arts and prohibiting Frederick II's pursuit of culture, even beheading II's rumored homosexual lover in front of his son.

Nevertheless, Frederick II became a great musician, a composer and a flutist in his own right.

Hagan's performance was absolutely captivating as king, to see him move around the stage like a stag, the very best of any king I’ve seen, a stunning portrayal of Frederick II, and coming close to riding roughshed over the star.

He is strong, he is arrogant, he is confident as he flings himself upon a chair and extends both arms, his legs, splayed. And when he stands, his arclike posture  commands all the personalities around him. But he is the king.

Jamie Wilkes is Bach's subservient son, Carl Philip Emanuel Bach, a convincing rendering of an offspring who competes with other court composers  (the king’s sycophants, Christopher Staines, Matthew Romain, Toby Webster) utilizing the history of Bach I and the king, to participate in an outrageous bet about his father’s talents.

From left, King Frederick II of Prussia  (Stephen Hagan) with court composers (Christopher Staines, Toby Webster, and Matthew Romain) in Theatre Royal Bath's The Source at Shakespeare Theatre Company/By Theresa Castracane

From left, Voltaire (Peter De Jersey) and Johann Sebastian Bach (Brian Cox) backed by court composers (Christopher Staines, Toby Webster, and Matthew Romain) in Theatre Royal Bath's The Source at Shakespeare Theatre Company/By Theresa Castracane

Voltaire (Peter De Jersey) who lived for a while with Frederick II, declaring him to be "a philosopher-king," and exchanging many letters with him,  pops up every now and then in a lusty, comedic presentation to add doses of humor and lighten the score. (The play has lots more humor than anticipated.) 

Jones's exceptional sets and costumes match the luxury of von Menzel's painting.

The similarities to today’s American society and leadership leap to mind several times during the play, watching opposites contrast between the main characters, good and evil, and the conflicts between the people and a ruler who cares little about them and their wellbeing.

Other cast members are Juliet Garricks, Will Kerr, Jordan Kilshaw, Claire Morrissey, Max Pink, and Geoffrey Towers.

I can’t recall ever listing a casting director but kudos to Ginny Schiller! 

Other artistic team members are Cordelia Monsey, associate director; Theatre Royal Bath Productions, Len Blavatnik, Danny Cohen, producers; Laura Smith, Felix Dunning and Lorna Earl, stage managers.

 

What: The Source

 

When:  Now through Oct. 25 (extended), 7:30 p.m., Tuesday – Sunday; 2 p.m. every Saturday and some Thursdays and Sundays

 

Where:  Shakespeare Theatre Company, Harman Hall, 610 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20004

 

How much:  Tickets start at $39

Duration:  About 2.5 hours with one intermission

 

For more information:  Ph. 202.547.1122,  7 days a week, 12–6pm

Shakespeare Academy graduates charge the stage thru Saturday

From left, Kendall Kent, Kimberly Colisch, and Julian Cividanes star in Shakespeare Theatre Academy's Macbeth/Shakespeare Theatre Co.

Two Shakespeare plays for $40! Unbelievable!

Almost as unbelievable as the dazzling acting seen on the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Klein Theatre. 

But hurry! Remaining tickets are few.

 

They are the ending performances by graduates of the Master of Fine Arts program the Shakespeare Theatre Academy offers in conjunction with George Washington University.

 

“If music be the food of love, play on!” They did.

From left, Bridget Campbell, Robert Kittler, and Michael Girts star in Shakespeare Theatre Academy's Twelfth Night/Shakespeare Theatre Co.

The graduates are completing their year of extensive training in the fine arts of stage combat, classical language, acting, text, voice, speech, movement and combat experience, taught by accomplished actors and trained crew.

Lest anyone think these are amateurish shows because they are performed by “new” graduates,  not only have these students graduated college with each boasting a string of performances ranging from off Broadway to local companies to regional theatres throughout the U.S., they are, in the words of Malvolio:

 

“not afraid of greatness” for 

“some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.” 

They all perform in both the comedy, Twelfth Night and the tragedy, MacBeth and who's to say which is better?

The sets are minimal, the costumes (by Cidney Forkpah, assisted by Lily Komarov) are contemporary, but the sounds, the sounds!  (By Matt Nielson who composed original scores) are outstanding: 

The thunder!  

The clashing of helmets! 

The lightning (sound?), 

The waves crashing upon the shore while the Twelfth Nighters bend from their waists and sway with the waves before the shipwreck off the coast of Illyria and the ensuing mix-ups. (In Shakespeare?  Mix-ups? ‘Tis cannot be!) 

The scariest ghouls made up in the most divine (?) ways! They move, they float, they come at your throat!  

(The orchestration of the stringed instruments was most pleasing to the ear.)

Puppet Designer Ksenya Litvak’s puppets are magnificent. (Andrey Stuurman was consultant.)

 

And who can pass up opportunities to hear words of the master spoken on stage as in:

“O, full of scorpions is my mind!”

“Out, damned spot! out, I say!”

“Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!”

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair, hover through fog and filthy air.”

 

The graduates are Bridget Campbell, Julian Cividanes, Kimberly Colisch, Kira Cornell, C.J. Craig, Michael Girts, Sofia Hernandez Morales, Claire Hilton, and Cameron Holder.

Also, Kendall Kent, Robert Kittler, Anna Marzullo, and Lenny Mendez Terceros, Matilda Musser, and Olivia Potter.

 

Jess Chayes directs Twelfth Night; Alec Wild, Macbeth.

 

Other artistic team members are:

Minjoo Kim, lighting; Robb Hunter, fight director; Bess Kaye, intimacy coordinator; Lisa Beley,
voice and text coach; Cammiel Hussey, Twelfth Night, and Katie McDonald, Macbeth, assistant directors; Maddie Caldis, production manager; Regina Vitale, stage manager; Maria Mills,  
assistant stage manager.  

Applause to all, especially to Emma Crane Jaster, movement director.

 

Remember, there is always: 

“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”

And

“What's done, is done”

What:  Twelfth Night and Macbeth

 

When:  In repertory through Saturday, July 25, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. and one Twelfth Night matinee at 2 p.m., July 25.

 

Where:  Shakespeare Theatre Company, Klein Theatre, 450 7th Street NW, Washington, DC 20004

 

How much:  $25 each performance or $40 for both

Duration:  Twelfth Night runs almost three hours with one intermission; MacBeth, about 2.5 hours with an intermission.

For more information:  Box Office, 202-547-1122, 12 – 6 p.m. and open until curtain on show days.

Patricialesli@gmail.com

Make haste! Bold 'Othello' departs June 28

 

From left, Ben Turner is Iago and Wendell Pierce is Othello at Shakespeare Theatre Company/Photo by Theresa Castracane


The acting is as superb as all that’s been told.

After the performance, a father and daughter told me that they couldn’t wait to bring other family members to the show.

Wendell Pierce is the Broadway star who is Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Othello, a bold showman whose role in the first act is moderate compared to the demands of the second.

And whatever act it is, the dastardly Iago (Ben Turner) commands the stage, a forceful and stronger villain than other Iagos I have witnessed.

Casting director Danica Rodriguez took no shortcuts choosing the actors for one of the bard's best.

Iago is angry that he’s been overlooked for a promotion by General Othello who chooses Cassio (Lucas Iverson) for the position, and what’s this? Has the general has been trifling with Iago’s wife, Emilia (Melanie Field)?

All the more reasons to act on Iago’s suspicions!

Says Iago to Othello: "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on."

Iago unceasingly feeds hints of imaginary betrayal to Othello by his wife, Desdemona (Olivia Cygan), a frail and delicate flower who never professes anything but faithfulness to her husband.

She has eloped with Othello, much to the shock of her father, Brabantio (Joey Collins) who disowns his daughter and hints of future infidelity to his new black son-in-law.

Alas! When it came to the marriage bed, I did indeed think Othello had smothered Desdemona in the lifelike murder scene when Desdemona fights for life under the sheets, kicking her legs and wailing, Othello’s heart having turned to stone.

Melanie Field is Emilia the handmaid for Desdemona (Olivia Cygan) in Othello at Shakespeare Theatre Company/Photo by Theresa Castracane

The victim’s handmaid, Emilia, in a spellbinding delivery, comes to the aid of her mistress too late! Emilia berating her deplorable spouse, she soon to be slain when the truth is revealed before the star kills himself.

So little time, so many murders.


Scenic designer Susan Hilferty places the few props in strategic locations, more, unnecessary since the play’s jealousy and revenge are all consuming, leaving audience members who eavesdrop on Iago’s plans, breathless and tense, most already aware of the outcome.


Daniel Velez, Todd Schofield, Derek Garza, Giovanna Drummond are other cast members with the Ensemble: Jon Beal, C.J.Craig, Sofia Hernandez-Morales, Claire Hilton, Anna Marzullo, Vish Shukla, Cole Sitilides, James Whalen, Em Whitworth.

STC's artistic director, Simon Godwin, directs the play in a tight presentation.  It's Othello, after all.


The artistic team includes Shiloh Coke, composer; Hilferty and Sarita P. Fellows, costume designers; Amith A. Chandrashaker, lighting; Christopher Shutt, sound; Jonathan Goddard, choreographer; Everett Judd, assistant director; Laura Smith, production stage manager; Robb Hunter, fight choreographer.

Royal Shakespeare's outstanding 'Hamnet' at Shakespeare Theatre Company

 

Rory Alexander and Kemi-Bo Jacobs as William and Agnes Shakespeare in Hamnet at Shakespeare Theatre Company/Photo by Kyle Flubacker

Attention, theatre-lovers: For the best acting you'll see anywhere, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Neal Street Productions' Hamnet onstage now at Washington's Shakespeare Theatre Company is a must.

The show sold every seat and broke box office records in Stratford-upon-Avon before it crossed the pond to run in Chicago, Washington, and San Francisco, the only U.S. venues.  

Most of the original cast came with it. 

The play is based on Maggie O'Farrell's bestselling historical fiction, adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti.

Hamnet was the only son of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and Anne Hathaway (1556-1623) who was born with his sister, Judith, a twin, in 1586. 

Shortly after their birth, William Shakespeare (Rory Alexander) left his wife (Kemi-Bo Jacobs) and family to pursue writing and acting in London.

When Judith (Saffron Dey) suddenly became ill with plague symptoms when the twins were 10 or 11, a  message was rushed to their father who hurried home.

But by the time he got there, Judith had recovered and Hamnet (Ajani Cabey) lay ill or had already died, likely before his father arrived. 

To escape the suffering and grief, Shakespeare returned to London and continued his career. 

After his death, the parents took solace knowing their son would live on in his father's works.  

At the time of Hamnet's death, Shakespeare was writing comedies which he continued for several years until he began turning out his greatest tragedies, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Julius Caesar and others. In them scholars find links to Hamnet.

 

William and Anne whose name is changed to Agnes in the novel and in the play, married in 1582 when Anne was pregnant with Susannah (Ava Hinds-Jones), their oldest child.

 

Most sources say they didn't have a good marriage, and naturally, the fault is Anne's since evil rests with women, believed by some then and now. (See Eve in the Garden of Eden.) 

Anne was eight years older than William, and it is suggested that she and her family trapped Shakespeare who was abused by his own father (forcefully played by Nigel Barrett). 

For those who have never had a baby, Ms. Jacobs delivers three times in excruciating agony. The play centers on her emotional and mental turmoil which Ms. Jacobs performs with conviction and credibility.

  

Tom Piper's set design of scaffolding on three levels recalls the outlines of 16th century English Tudor housing, looking like the house where Shakespeare was born, with a loft which becomes a bedroom. 

Like mice scurrying from place to place, it's mostly women who come and go, quickly changing the scenes by moving a rectangular table back and forth on the first level.  

Every so often birds sing (sound by Simon Baker), reflective of Anne's love of them, their freedom and their homing return like William makes it from time to time.

Heard in the final act: "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die."

Others in the cast are Penny Layden as William's sympathetic mother, Mary, while Troy Alexander is Agnes's understanding brother, Bartholomew who rescues his sister more than once. Also, Elizabeth Connick, Heather Forster, Karl Haynes, Nicki Hobday, Matilda McCarthy, and Bert Seymour (the last two, the dance and fight captains, respectively). 

Oğuz Kaplangi’s  captivating music, mostly heard during scene changes, foreshadows the tension and conflict.

Prema Mehta's variable lighting techniques contribute to the sad environment and mood. 

The artistic team includes the director, Erica Whyman, the RSC acting artistic director; fight director, Kate Waters; movement director, Ayşe Tashkiran; and stage managers, Marius Arnold-Clarke, Chloë Forestier-Walker, and Laura Smith.

About 2.5 hrs. with a 15-minute intermission.

Special performances are:

Audio Description - Saturday, April 4, 2p..m

Open Captioning - Wednesday, April 8, 12p.m. | Thursday, April 9, 7:30 p.m.

Shakespeare Theatre Company, Harman Hall, 610 F St., NW, Washington, DC 20004. Now through April 12. Tickets start at $39 with discounts for those 35 and under.  Enter code 26U35 in the promo code box; subject to availability.

Phone: 202-547-1122.

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Shakespeare's 'On Beckett' is Oh, Beckett!

 Bill Irwin is Samuel Beckett in Shakespeare Theatre Company's On Beckett/ by Craig Schwartz

 Bill Irwin is a Tony Award winning actor, director, writer, choreographer, star of stage and screen, and devotee of Irish author Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) whom Irwin portrays in a solo performance at Shakespeare Theatre Company. 

Last Saturday night's crowd at On Beckett enthusiastically welcomed Irwin's Beckett show, Beckett's large photograph making up a big chunk of the initial black backdrop. 

For all those who know something and more about Beckett and for those who want to know more, it is an evening of pleasure.

Beckett was born in Dublin, Ireland, the winner of Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, a modernist writer of all things bleak, sad, tragic, and absurd who wrote in English and French and is best known for End Game (1957) and Waiting for Godot (1952) from which Irwin read excerpts and periodically presented brief biographical Beckett sketches. 

"We have time to grow old.  The air is full of our cries.  But habit is a great deadener." 

Irwin also quoted from Beckett's Texts for Nothing about old men searching for new meaning in new places.

"Yes, I was my father and I was my son. I asked myself questions and answered as best I could....the same old story I knew by heart and couldn't believe, or we walked to each in his world, the hands forgotten in each other."

Irwin, who bears a striking resemblance to his subject, created the show which he complements with clown antics (he studied at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College) and bigger pants, jackets and suspenders he puts on.

In keeping with the minimalist Beckett content, the stage (by Charlie Corcoran) was the same with bench and podium (from which sprouted an unruly microphone) which became a screen for Irwin's ascents and descents. (You have to be there.) 

James Joyce was Beckett's mentor and friend who often wore a bow tie (he gave one to Beckett), a cravat Irwin wore, too, with, at times, a bowler hat, and a cane.  

Irwin, 75, is the first performing artist to be awarded a five-year MacArthur Fellowship. 

The performance lasted about 90 minutes and seemed much shorter. 

Michael Gottlieb's excellent positioning of  spotlights and lighting from above and behind the audience cast Irwin's shadow on the backdrop. 

Other creative team members: Martha Hally, costumes; M. Florian Staab, sound; Lisa McGinn and Natalie Hratko, stage management.

Special performances include:

Open captioning: 2 p.m., Feb. 21; 12 p.m., Mar. 4; and 7:30 p.m., Mar. 5

Audio description:  2 p.m., Feb 28

Young Prose Night (under 35): 7:30 p.m., Feb. 20

What: On Beckett

When: Now through March 15. 2026 

Where: Klein Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, 450 7th Street, N.W.

Tickets: Start at $35

Box office:  202-547- 1122

The show is an Irish Repertory Theatre production made in association with Octopus Theatricals.

(Of note:  Google no longer permits links to Wikipedia.) 

patricialesli@gmail.com

Shakespeare's 'Wild Duck' is must-see

Melanie Field is Gina Ekdal and Nick Westrate is Hjalmar Ekdal in Shakespeare Theatre Company's The Wild Duck/By Gerry Goodstein

Do you reveal the truth to those around you, thinking it will help when it's none of your business?

When "the truth" may set you free but may make matters worse and upset family dynamics?

Do I tell my best friend her husband is having an affair with her next door neighbor? Or that I heard from medical team members that her mother's cancer has returned and it's terminable?

Is it up to me?

The second act of The Wild Duck caused my hand and fingers to stop moving.

I was hypnotized and my notetaking ceased, overcome by Shakespeare Theatre Company's Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck, "rarely performed" and likely the only time I'll see it, according to program notes by the theatre's artistic director, Simon Godwin, who directs.

Not one sneeze, one cough, or one dropped program by audience members sounded in the auditorium of several hundred.

We were breathless, unable to break the total silence which engulfed the venue.

But lest I go hyperbolic, do go prepared. Read a synopsis beforehand, but even that won't prepare you for this spellbinding performance.

The first act is the calm before the storm, the explosion of the second act when Gina (Melanie Field), a mousy wife we are led to believe, evolves into a forceful dynamo to stand her ground and make her pleas that she is a loving wife, no matter what has happened in the past, but husband, Hjalmar (Nick Westrate), refuses to accept her arguments when she begs for forgiveness and acceptance of the past.


Their daughter, Hedvig (Maaike Laanstra-Corn) is a clingy type, torn by her dad's anger and her blood curdling screams typify the tragedy which I joined in mourning. (Had I not been "prepared," no doubt I would have been sobbing with the woman behind me.)

The first act's gentle husband becomes a possessive spouse/louse, urged on by the devil incarnate, Gregers Werle (Alexander Hurt), always wearing black and spouting the same, trying to "do good," or is he?

Can't you realize, Hjalmar, what's happening? But, Hjalmar is blinded by passion and the past.

David Patrick Kelly is Old Ekdal in Shakespeare Theatre Company's The Wild Duck/By Hollis King

The acting is superb, none finer than that by David Patrick Kelly, the slow and bent grandpa who has a relationship, too, with the arrogant and conceited patriarch (Robert Stanton) who has relationships with everybody, including his disaffected son who resist his father's moves and money.

Alexander Sovronsky is the music director who, with sound designer Darron L. West, has composed a beautiful and unforgettable score of 19th century Norwegian folk and classical music which Sovronsky plays on various instruments between scenes.

It is David Eldridge’s version of Ibsen's play, the place, Norway in the 1880s.

Ibsen is often referred to as the "father of modern drama" and, according to Wikipedia, "the most important playwright since Shakespeare" who influenced, among others, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Eugene O'Neill, and James Joyce.

Some consider Wild Duck the most complex and Ibsen's finest work, the first modern masterpiece in the genre of tragicomedy, but writing about it, the humorous parts totally eclipsed me who found it somewhat sexist.

In program notes, Drew Lichtenberg quotes Ibsen: Wild Duck "will certainly provoke discussion, but it cannot possibly give offense to anyone." I beg to differ.

Cast members include Katie Broad, Mahira Kakkar, Bobby Plasencia, and Matthew Saldivar.

Other creative team members are Andrew Boyce, scenics;
Heather C. Freedman, costumes; Stacey Derosier, lighting;
Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum, movement and fight director; Andrew Wade, voices; Satellite Wigs; Jonno Knust, properties; Laura Smith, production stage manager; Dayne Sundman, assistant stage manager.

Produced in association with Theatre for a New Audience, this makes Ibsen STC's second most-produced playwright after ...

What: The Wild Duck

When:  Through Nov. 16, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. with weekend matinees at 2 p.m.

Where: Shakespeare Theatre Company's Klein Theatre, 450 7th St., NW, Washington, DC 20004

Tickets: Start at $39

Audio Description: Saturday, Nov. 8, 2pm 

Open Captioning: Wednesday, Nov. 12, 12 p.m., and Nov. 13, 7:30pm

Audience: For adults and mature children 

For more information: Call the Box Office at 202-547-1122, seven days a week, 12 – 6pm which remains open until curtain time. ShakespeareTheatre.org.

Duration:  About 2.5 hours with one intermission  

Metro Stations: Gallery Place, Archives, Metro Center

patricialesli@gmail.com 

Shakespeare's 'Merry Wives' will show you a good time

From left, Shakespeare Theatre Company's Merry Wives are Mrs. Ford (Felicia Curry, left,) and Mrs. Page (Oneika Phillips) separated by the conniving Falstaff (Jacob Ming-Trent)/by Teresa Castracane

It's a comedy tonight!

And the wildest, funniest contemporary Shakespeare version I have seen, and the crowd roared with me. 

Shakespeare Theatre Company presents the adaptation, Merry Wives by Jocelyn Bioh which she wrote for NYC's 2021 Shakespeare in the Park, all about West African immigrants and cultures in present-day Harlem.

And a boisterous, rowdy lot they are, indeed! 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Ford (Nick Rashad Burroughs and Felicia Curry) own a laundromat while their friends, the Pages (JaBen Early and Oneika Phillips) have a hair salon.

Amidst an elegant setting of a three-story building at a subway stop, the haughty and laughable Falstaff (Jacob Ming-Trent) is hungry for all kinds of treasures and sets his sights on two wealthy women whose possessions he is in need. 

Like many lovers who screw up when more than one is involved, Falstaff is a prime contender. 

"Setting the attractions of my good parts aside, I have no other charms," he says, most assuredly with high confidence he'll succeed in his quests.

Alas, if you can imagine a mixup in Shakespeare: Falstaff sends both of his targets the same love letter!

But, being the savvy sisters they are, Ms. Page and Ms. Ford soon grasp what Falstaff is all about and they plan revenge. Saith Madam Page:  "Wives may be merry, and yet honest too."

Time and again, the wives play tricks on the slobbery, wobbly Falstaff from the laundry room to the hair salon to the woods amidst spectacular sets by Lawrence E. Moten III.

The ladies lean, they twist their bodies and a few words.

Their husbands soon join the party, Mr. Page who says: "I do despise a liar as I do despise one that is false, or as I despise one that is not true" while the jealous Mr. Ford (Mrs. Ford will learn 'em!) claims it is "better three hours too soon than a minute too late." 

Meanwhile, several suitors chase the Pages' daughter, Anne (Peyton Rowe), none more entertaining than the good Dr. Caius (Jordan Barbour) whose exaggerated antics made me laugh often. 

Others in pursuit of the young lass are Fenton and Slender (Latoya Edwards in both roles).

Anne has her favorite, and so did I who could have watched Shaka Zu, an ensemble member, dance the night away. 

Taylor Reynolds directs. Other cast members are Bru Aju, Kelli Blackwell, Rebecca Celeste, Sekou Laidlaw, Craig Wallace, and Tyrone Stanley. 

The artistic team included Ivania Stack, costumes; Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew, lighting; Mikaal Sulaiman, sound; Nikiya Mathis, wigs and hair; Ashleigh King, choreographer; Nadia Guevara, associate director; Laura Smith, production stage manager; 
Jazzy Davis and Stephen Bubniak, assistant stage managers.

Scholars say Shakespeare wrote the Merry Wives of Windsor to answer Queen Elizabeth's request for more of Falstaff, this time in love.  Ms. Bioh's rendition keeps almost all of the original script first published 400 years ago. (Classics last!)

STC will have a special evening on Friday, Sept. 26 at 7:30 pm for guests to "mix, mingle, and be merry" at Harman Hall for Akwaaba Night with the show, cast and cultures.

What: Merry Wives

When:  Through Oct. 5, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. with weekend matinees at 2 p.m.

Where: Harman Hall, Shakespeare Theatre Company, 610 F Street NW. Washington, DC 20004

Tickets: Start at $35

Audience: For adults and mature children 

For more information: Call the Box Office at 202-547-1122, seven days a week, 12 – 6pm. The Box Office windows remain open until curtain time.

Duration:  Almost two hours without intermission 

Metro Stations: Gallery Place, Archives, Metro Center

patricialesli@gmail.com