Shakespeare’s Globe, London, until 20th September
Standing in the drizzle at this ersatz Elizabethan theatre, among the modern groundlings in their plastic anoraks, I wondered, heretically, whether anyone would bother to stage The Merry Wives of Windsor if it had been written by anybody else. It’s a good way of assessing which of Shakespeare’s plays deserve reviving – and which ones would be better left alone. Most of his tragedies and histories would still be revered, even if someone else had written them. But I can think of several comedies that fail this test, and this erratic play is one of them. Shakespeare buffs adore The Merry Wives because it’s so different from his other dramas. Unusually for Shakespeare, it’s predominantly written in prose rather than blank verse, which makes it less poetic and more naturalistic. And, uniquely, it’s set in a realistic English location. If you’re at all familiar with Windsor, you’ll recognise many of...
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