The Merry Wives of Windsor at Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended

"...Anyway, “The Merry Wives of Windsor” was Shakespeare’s way of bringing back Falstaff and sticking him in the middle of an exceptionally lively Elizabethan sitcom, all about Sir John’s flailing attempts at seducing two perfectly respectable married women, Mistress Page (Ora Jones) and Mistress Ford (Issy van Randwyck), resulting in a less-than-impressive display of marital trust from Master Ford (Timothy Edward Kane)."

Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended

"...Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) is presenting Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. The raucous production, directed Phillip Breen, applies CSTs high standards and impeccable attention to detail to what some have argued is Shakespeare's least-worthy material. In so doing, it skillfully makes good on Breen's stated intention to rescue the text from previous 'rescuers' who have seen in the play a multitude of sins that needed papering over.""

Stage and Cinema - Recommended

"...The Merry Wives of Windsor is not one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies, and its origins may partly explain why: Falstaff appeared in the Henry plays, and his character became immensely popular. Queen Elizabeth I reportedly commissioned Shakespeare to write a new story with Falstaff at the center, this time in love. Set 200 years after the history plays, Wives was supposedly written in just 14 days, and that haste shows. The script often feels structurally uneven, even as Shakespeare experiments with language, abandoning blank verse for prose."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended

"...The Merry Wives of Windsor was not meant to be a deep commentary on society or a satire poking fun at social institutions. It was meant to be an entertainment and this rendering takes that impulse and amplifies it into a rip roaring night at the theater. Forget your troubles and head to Navy Pier to laugh your socks off."

Let's Play Theatrical Reviews - Highly Recommended

"...Together, the entire ensemble set a joyful, laughter-filled tone that resonated throughout the performance. The Merry Wives is a rambunctious comedic, farce, filled with slapstick humor, which I'm not usually a fan of this kind of humor. Still, this production is hilarious."

Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...Director Phillip Breen has done a masterful job of utilizing the stage at Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier. If you have not been to a production on their main stage, you need to know that it is a stage surrounded on three sides by audience and that the actors use the aisles to enter and exit as well as the actual stage areas ( both left and right). There are also times that they play directly to the audience- in this one items are tossed out to the seats, and the audience loves to be part of this action."

Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended

"...From inventive, impressively creative guest director, Phillip Breen, comes this wildly reimagined production of one of Shakespeare’s lesser plays; but with just a few alterations, he makes it into one of the comic highlights of the season. Setting it in Autumn at Halloween, and filled with gossiping girlies, English school boys, bumbling servants and music that energize both the cast and the audience, this brash and bawdy buffoonery of a play becomes a comedy classic that theatergoers will enjoy and remember for the secret lives of those wonderful Windsor Wives."

Buzz Center Stage - Highly Recommended

"...Shakespeare’s comedies share a familiar architecture: mistaken identity, disguises, intersecting plotlines, a generous helping of prose, and language that delights in wordplay and double entendre. They are also, crucially, driven by sharp, intelligent women who often see more clearly than the men around them. With that foundation in mind, Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of The Merry Wives of Windsor leans confidently into these conventions - and then accelerates them - resulting in a delightfully mischievous evening."

Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended

"...If you’ve ever seen William Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor performed, you might remember it as the silly, bawdy comedy that brought back the popular character of the drunken, silly, and bawdy Sir John Falstaff. (Yep, that sort of thing happened with the Bard, too; it isn’t just a modern media construct.) You might, though, be forgiven if you can’t recall much beyond that."

Chicago Culture Authority - Highly Recommended

"...The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare’s bawdy bedroom farce reprising Sir John Falstaff from Henry IV (apparently at the request of Elizabeth I), requires full-throttle commitment from its players to work. Egged on by director Phillip Breen, whose vision includes covering the entire stage and a goodly portion of the audience in a shower of underwear, the cast of Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s new production more than meets the task. The result is a raucous, ribald, utterly ridiculous entertainment of the type we sorely need to escape the grim course of world events."

NewCity Chicago - Recommended

"...It’s a small quibble over an excellent production. ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ is produced less often than other plays in the heart of the Shakespeare canon. It is worth catching."