At the end of Merry Wives—Jocelyn Bioh’s joyous, quick-witted update of Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park—there is, naturally, a celebration: The characters Anne Page (played by Abena) and Fenton (MaYaa Boateng) have just been married, so there must be dancing, revelry, and snazzy new outfits for everyone involved. (It’s basically a Shakespearean comedy rule. The snazzy new outfits are, of course, optional.)
Directed by Saheem Ali, Merry Wives is the first Shakespeare in the Park production since the pandemic began. Its very existence is cause for celebration. Richard III could have been up there mowing down everyone in sight and the audience would have giddily applauded every kill.
Still, a play about hapless horndog Falstaff (Jacob Ming-Trent) trying to scam two wealthy way out-of-his-league women—Madam Page (Eclipsed’s Pascale Armand) and Madam Ford (Susan Kelechi Watson of NBC’s weep-fest This Is Us), the titular “merry wives”—is much more appropriate mid-2021 fare. “It’s been a long, hard year,” Falstaff laments to us. “Couldn’t go to the clubs. Couldn’t hit up the bars. Liquor stores was closed all early. Been stuck in the house just eating snacks. Watching Netflix.… So can you blame me for tryna get with Madam Page and Madam Ford?” Clearly he got the hot vax summer memo.
[Read Steven Suskin’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
Bioh (School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play) sets her modern-day Merry Wives in a tight-knit West African community in Harlem. She’s changed the character names a bit: For example, Francis Ford has become Mister Nduka Ford (played by Gbenga Akinnagbe), married to Madam Nkechi Ford (Watson), who Shakespeare called Mistress Alice Ford; and George Page is now Mister Kwame Page (Kyle Scatliffe), and his wife Mistress Margaret Page is now Madam Ekua Page (Armand). And, oh yes, she does add one twist: Anne Page’s third suitor and true love, Fenton, is in this production played by a woman. Otherwise, she hews very closely to Shakespeare’s original. Those of you who know The Merry Wives of Windsor intimately—there must be four or five of you out there—will recognize some of the original text, line for line.
At its core, Merry Wives—the original and Bioh’s version—largely centers on two women outsmarting, and outscheming, a dishonest dude. (There are also the subplots of Ford suspecting his wife of infidelity—when, of course, all she’s doing is playing mind games with Falstaff—and three suitors fighting for Anne Page’s affections.) It’s not, shall we say, the meatiest of plots. And Shakespeare did himself no favors with this Falstaff—a broke-ass, broken-down gold digger who’s worlds away from the lovable knight so warmly eulogized in Henry V, Prince Hal’s hard-drinking but loyal-to-the-end pal in the Henry IV plays.
Bioh actually makes her Falstaff a fun guy. As he says when he’s hatching his (destined to fail miserably) woo-them-both plan: “I will be cheaters to them both, and they shall be sugar mamas to me; We’re gonna have the Ghanaian AND the Nigerian jollof rice!” Ming-Trent’s hangdog expressions and self-deprecating charm go a long way, too. And set designer Beowulf Boritt deserves special commendation for the gloriously over-the-top decoration of Falstaff’s pad: animal print bedding, a hot pink shag, and—the pièce de résistance—a four-panel portrait of Falstaff modeled after rapper Biggie Smalls’ iconic “King of New York” photo.
Bioh also turns the incongruous Midsummer Night’s Dream–like final-scene fairy pageant into something more than spectacle, using the summoning of the spirits to recognize the turmoil of the past year and a half (“the greatest of storms,” she describes it). “Now is the time for the reformation/ Now is the time to rebuild the nation!” says Mama Quickly (Shola Adewusi). “Tonight, dear spirits we thank you for life/ No more pain or hurt of living in strife.” Now that is something to celebrate.
Merry Wives opened Aug. 9, 2021, and runs through Sept. 18. Tickets and information: publictheater.org
