The Merry Wives of Windsor review: Haughty, naughty Sir John Falstaff leads us on a merry dance, writes PATRICK MARMION

The temptation to go for the full Boris must have been great. But in the end the Royal Shakespeare Company has settled for something more akin to a local Tory party chairman, in the form of the strikingly tall – and impressively padded – John Hodgkinson, who plays the lecherous fat man Sir John Falstaff.

It’s a beautiful suburban production that – with its prefab, faux-Tudor buildings and plastic box hedges – recreates the sleepy serenity of affluent central England.

Some scenes are set in a beer garden (inside, ‘Pie Sports’ is advertised), while the homely interior is furnished with John Lewis sofas, lamps and ready-made curtains. The partnership should probably get a credit in the program.

But it is Hodgkinson’s Falstaff who rules – and deplores – the day. He may be the best Merry Wives’ Falstaff I’ve ever seen (his incarnation in three of Shakespeare’s historical plays is a much more downgraded kettle of fish).

Normally he is presented from the start as a lewd, lazy clown, but here he is a haughty, higher-status creation, radiating pride and pomposity as he rules over his ‘followers’ – a rabble of ASBO teenagers.

It’s a beautifully suburban production that – with its prefab, faux-Tudor buildings and plastic box hedges

In his finely tailored navy blue three-piece suit and club tie, Hodgkinson exhibits the demeanor of a lawyer, well accustomed to the authority of his sonic boom.

But he really starts to seethe when it comes to his mission to bed two of Windsor’s best people: Mistress Page (Samantha Spiro) and Mistress Ford (Siubhan Harrison).

They, in turn, give him a famous fall as he escapes the wrath of the jealous Mr. Ford – first in a laundry basket, then in a plus-size dress.

Spiro and Harrison are a perfect double act of fashionably coiffed middle-aged ladies, who cheerfully manage Falstaff’s income. Spiro is small and bouncy, while Harrison is her opposite, tall and breathless.

Meanwhile, Richard Goulding as husband Frank Ford is almost constipated with jealousy; and Jason Thorpe entertains as French dentist Dr. Caius, who offers to have a word in an anagram of someone’s ‘ears’ (think bottom).

Trainspotters will be delighted to see Patrick Walshe McBride finally make his RSC debut, after wandering around the block for so long as the slick office thespian in the BBC’s Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators. Here he is an awkward young Mr. Bean, nervously anticipating a marital disorder.

It is also a testament to the attention to detail in Blanche McIntyre’s formidably long (nearly three hours), yet respectably tight production. Like Falstaff, it probably has a little too much weight, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is a very cheerful dance.

Taking liberties with Shakespeare isn’t a bad thing, but theater company Not Too Tame’s new production of Twelfth Night at Shakespeare North Playhouse, starring Les Dennis, makes our Will’s writing more honored at transgression than in compliance.

Some scenes are set in a beer garden (‘Pie Sports’ are advertised inside), while the homely interior is furnished with John Lewis sofas

In his finely tailored navy blue three-piece suit and club tie, Hodgkinson displays the demeanor of a lawyer, well accustomed to the authority of his sonic boom.

The Bard’s melancholic romcom is transformed into a raw rock musical with Elizabethan intermezzos, in what could best be described as a sing-along with Shakespeare. The story of the castaway Viola and her twin brother Sebastian, who become entangled in the romantic intrigues of the Duke, Countess and her valet Malvolio (Dennis) is literally electrified by a barrage of classic, plugged-in pop and four-letter music. ad-libbing.

We open with Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones and continue with Shakespears Sister (Stay), with the occasional ad hoc rap from rock star Duke Orsino.

There’s a howling medley of songs, triggered by drunken, troublemaking knights Toby Belch and Andrew Aguecheek, with the audience urged to join in – only to be admonished by Dennis’ killjoy Malvolio (a pink-cut pensioner who isn’t happy that his wife’s house has changed). to a tavern).

When the party goers finally get their revenge – by tricking him into thinking the Countess is sweet on him – he dons a hilariously bling outfit: a striking yellow fur coat, topped with eyeliner, aviator sunglasses and a headdo. , all on Hot Chocolate’s You Sexy Thing strains.

Where Dennis finds pathos in his humiliation, the evening’s biting energy comes largely from a cheerfully manic ensemble cast.

Louise Haggerty delights the audience as a Glaswegian compere fool; Purvi Parmar is a girl next door, Countess Olivia; and Kate James, as her mischievous maid Maria, is a scheming Scouser. Georgia Frost and Tom Sturgess, as the divorced castaways, show off their musical talents by playing guitar and keyboard.

Reuben Johnson’s dim-witted Sir Andrew Aguecheek plays the clown with Jack Brown’s demotic dipso Toby Belch, while Jimmy Fairhurst’s production tries to bring Shakespeare to the people.

They succeed, but only by knocking him off his pedestal.

The Merry Wives of Windsor runs until September 7. Twelfth Night ends on June 29.