CONWAY -- Rain tapered off in time for the cast of Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre's Merry Wives of Windsor to take the stage on the lawn of The Village at Hendrix for the show's final Conway performance Saturday night.
The bawdy comedy follows the boastful -- and broke -- John Falstaff as he courts two women in the town of Windsor, hoping to use seduction as an entry to their husbands' money.
Of course, this is a comedy by William Shakespeare, so misdirection and errors ensue, and Falstaff finds himself playing the fool rather than the Lothario. Most of the trickery is choreographed by wives Alice Ford (Courtney Bennett) and Meg Page (Paige Reynolds), who -- thanks to director Dan Matisa's decision to transport the show to the American '50s -- seem to have walked straight off the set of I Love Lucy.
While the pearl-wearing wives may direct many of the misdoings, it's the show's male characters who garner most of the laughs.
There's the heavily accented French doctor who battles a buffoon named Slender and guitar-wielding Fenton for the hand of Meg Page's daughter, Anne. There's suspicious husband Frank Ford's sneaky, audience-jabbing alter ego Brook and the sword-wielding Irish parson. Each character has his own bouts of Three Stooges-worthy slapstick, complete with a cake to the face.
Most animated of all is Falstaff, played by Paul Kiernan with impressive energy from start to finish. Kiernan is full of off-the-cuff remarks and quick asides to the front row. He leads some of the show's most successful scenes and is especially entertaining when he is able to play against Stacy Pendergraft's sassy Mistress Quickly.
And while Kiernan's physical comedy could at times be distracting -- one particular bit involving a bar stool went on a bit too long -- his Falstaff proved why the character's legend looms large.
Merry Wives begins its Argenta run at 7:30 p.m. June 25 at the Argenta Farmers Market, 521 N. Main St. in North Little Rock, with shows also scheduled for June 26 and 28. The outdoor show is free, with a suggested donation of $15.
Metro on 06/14/2015