Falstaff (Peter Mottley) impresses the "merry wives", with his borrowed 1950s Studebaker car!
The laughing ladies are (left to right)
Meriel Patrick as Mrs Ford, Alex Reid as Mrs Page and
Barbara Denton as Mrs Quickly
The Studebaker belongs to Guild member Dick Russell who has a collection of 1950s memorabilia. He maintains the car in spotless road-worthy condition, so Fastaff would have been able to offer the ladies a lift into Windsor Great Park!
(The car doesn’t appear on stage in this Guild production.)
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSORA naughty knight is at the centre of the havoc in Oxford Theatre Guild's 50th Anniversary production of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. This is the second production of the Merry Wives to be launched in the city this summer. It cannot be compared with the fIrst, which was produced by the Oxford Shakespeare Company and went for pantomime-style, slapstick comedy. The newer show has been done straight, but well, and on Tuesday the cast did an excellent job of keeping the audience entertained, despite a chilly wind in the gardens of Merton College. The story' follows the fat, ageing knight Sir John Falstaff, (peter Mottley) as he attempts to win the hearts of two married women in a bid to make money. There is also outrageously jealous husband, Master Ford (Tim Younger) and Master and Mistress Page, who cannot agree whether their daughter Anne (Susanne Sheehy) should marry the wimpy Slender, or the nutty French Doctor Caius. In the fIrst half, I really felt the Welsh parson, Sir Hugh Evans (Michael Ward), was the funniest of the cast, with his facial expressions and amusing manner. By the second half the entire cast seemed to have really warmed up, with Peter Mottley making an excellent, particularly sleazy version of the bungling Falstaff. I left Merton feeling satisfied and amused and heard several audience members around me commenting on how good the production was. Jo Duckles Oxford Times
Directed by Simon Tavener for the Oxford Theatre Guild. Playing in The Fellows Garden, Merton College From 19th till 30th July 2005. An early evening nip in the air matched the pace of this excellent production. From the start, vigorous and entertaining movement alloyed with clear delivery ensured that this comedy of many strands would please. One could be forgiven if at times your mind began to think of alternative titles for the piece, such was the wonderful Barbara Windsor style Mistress Quickly delivered by Barbara Denton. 'Up The Fellows in Merton Garden' sprang to mind. The part of Falstaff was roundly filled by Peter Mottley as the groin motivated, ever failing, seducer. A basket case if ever there was one! Tim Younger and Tim Eyres (Masters Ford and Page) huffed and puffed a convincing pair of hardly convincing husbands. A highly amusing duo, or should I say trio, if you count the hairpiece. Their respective wives were well played by Meriel Patrick and Alex Reid. Fate has decreed that I have not seen Alex in a major part before though she clearly has a most commanding presence. So too have Kevin Elliot and Michael Ward as Shallow and Sir Hugh Evans, both fated I should think to be anchormen in future guild productions. Colin Burnie's Dr Caius and Christopher Outen's Slender were beautifully contrasted, each a hoot through movement and costume alone. Great stuff, making hardly believable characters live! The much sought after Anne Page (Susanne Sheehy) and her ultimate captor Fenton (Tom Richards) made a romantic coupling which would have had a much stronger impact if more of Fenton's words had been audible. No such problem with Michael Dacre as Mine Host, after a lifetime of calling Time Gentlemen his voice resonated around the gardens. The same with the motley crew who frequented his tavern - all vigorously committed to their characters, both vocally and physically. This is a fine production on all counts, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding production of Merry Wives. The Merton Fellows garden setting is a joy, particularly in the scene where Falstaff is humiliated for the third and last time. In other productions I have often thought that to punish Falstaff for the third time bordered on the vindictive, but here, with the array of dancing Faeries and midst the appropriate trees, I happily went along with the plot. Reviewed by Don Fathers for Theatreworld Internet Magazine 20/07/2005.
It’s the Oxford Theatre Guild’s 50th anniversary and what better way to mark it than a return to the play which kicked it all off – Shakespeare’s fast and funny Merry Wives of Windsor. And on this showing, you’ll be wishing them many happy returns. Set appropriately in the 1950s, Simon Tavener’s production grabs you from the start and gives Shakespeare’s famous farce a fresh and breezy spin. Portly rogue Sir John Falstaff spies an opportunity to make love and money out of two wives of Windsor. But cunning plans aren’t the male preserve and the merry wives are ahead of the game, bringing mirth from the girth and turning the tables three times over. Even matchmaker and maneater Mistress Quickly can’t resist poking fun, and other things, at poor Sir John. And with a whole host of suitors bearing down on local beauty, Anne, Windsor’s alive with plots and plans and an array of colourful characters. Fluff and nonsense of course. But with some of Shakespeare’s most beltingly funny and off-the-wall lines. Theatre Guild stalwart and all-round talent Peter Mottley fleshes out Falstaff brilliantly. The dissipated nobility is conveyed by blazer and hat and a leering swagger that’s somewhere between Sid James and Frankie Howerd. But the part’s his own and his comical ruminations on his come-uppances are a joy to behold. So too Barbara Denton’s flawless Mistress Quickly, a head-on collision between Diana Dors and Barbara Windsor – fluorescent in pink apron and a rather suggestive feather duster. Denton’s delivery is perfect. A fantastic creation. The wives are great, a lovely turn from Alex Reid and an engaging one from newcomer Meriel Patrick. And Colin Burnie wonderfully throws caution to the wind as Dr Caius – Frenchman, eccentric and letch. But credit should go to all. Even the more peripheral parts are memorable, with solid and professional playing. That’s a treat in itself. And it’s great to see young actors sharing the same stage with seasoned performers. Good too to be greeted by such attentive and welcoming stewards. Merton’s Fellows Garden provides a fine backdrop, centre stage given to the stunning trees, with a few painted panels suggesting the streets of old Windsor. The lilting tones of 50s hits will also produce a wistful nostalgia for some. The plot is mad and not always coherent. But it’s all very English and just goes to show that we’ve always been good at smut – for this is Carry On with a script by Shakespeare. So get yourself down to Merton, wrap yourself in a blanket
and raise a beverage in toast to the Oxford Theatre Guild and a happy evening’s
entertainment. Glenn Watson 21.07.05 Daily
Information.
* * * * *
FALSTAFF in triplicate! Three local actors with something in common: they have all acted the role of Falstaff for Oxford Theatre Guild! To celebrate Oxford Theatre Guild’s 50th anniversary of its first production of THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, David Mander, Bob Cambrey and Peter Mottley have met up at a rehearsal of this year’s Merry Wives in the Fellows’ Garden at Merton College, where the play will be performed by the Guild from 19 to 30 July. David played Falstaff in the original 1955 Guild production of Merry Wives in which Bob played the Host of the Garter Inn; Bob subsequently played Falstaff in the Guild’s 1987 production, in which Peter played the part of Pistol; and in 2005 Peter is taking on the role of the "fat rogue" Falstaff in the new production: almost a relay race! The Guild cast are hoping for two weeks of warm dry weather from 19 July when they perform in the Fellows’ Garden at Merton College. OTG is usually lucky, having had to cancel very few performances in the 50 years of outdoor summer Shakespeares. (The Guild claims to have started the tradition of garden Shakespeare in Oxford in 1955, and to have been performing in college gardens for 40 years before any commercial theatre companies jumped on the band wagon!) David and Bob recall that in 1955 the weather during July was so hot that when David took off his "fat suit" (Falstaff is supposed to have a girth "two yards round") it continued to palpitate up and down in the heat as it lay on the ground! Peter may be less uncomfortable as Falstaff in 2005 – this production breaks away from traditional Elizabethan dress for most of the play, so he won’t have to endure wearing a ruff and padded doublet, as David and Bob did in the Guild’s earlier productions of The Merry Wives.
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