Rehearsals are well under way and tickets now available to book online for Shropshire Drama Company’s forthcoming production – William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Directed by Rosalind Garrard and assisted by April Ryder, the outdoor performances will take place from 11 – 16 June at Holy Trinity Church Green in Much Wenlock as part of the town’s biennial arts and music festival. The play, which will be staged in-the-round, is a story with a number of interwoven plots and deals with themes that are universal and commonplace in every society. The characters are colourful and relatable, and the sort of people found on the streets of small English towns both now and during Shakespeare’s time.
Rosalind Garrard said: “In this very special year – thinking of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics – it seemed a good idea to stage this most English of all Shakespeare’s plays, and arguably the funniest! It has no dark undercurrents and is considered to be the forerunner to the great tradition of English farce. It is very accessible, celebrating the power of laughter and value of female wisdom! Unlike most of Shakespeare’s other plays, there are no earth-shattering events occurring to irrevocably change the community. The English way of life will continue in Windsor much as it always has – a town, at that time, not so very much different from Much Wenlock.”
In addition to the play performances in June, there will be a pre-production fundraising event. This will take place on Saturday 28 April in The Square, Shrewsbury where members of the cast and friends from other drama groups across Shropshire, will undertake a non-stop reading of scenes from Shakespeare’s plays based on the theme of marriage. Entitled ‘The Merry Wives of Shropshire’, the event will run from 10am to 4pm, with proceeds raised going towards the Severn Hospice.
Tickets for The Merry Wives of Windsor are available to book online at www.muchwenlockfestival.co.uk.
Picture: The Merry Wives of Windsor poster.
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