Elizabethan Swing: VSU preps a 'Merry' Shakespeare

Apr. 11—VALDOSTA — Ian Andersen promises this Shakespeare is fun.

Valdosta State University Theatre & Dance removes William Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" from the Elizabethan age and places it smack dab in a South Georgia golf course of the 1960s with a set and costumes that look more like something from a retro television sitcom.

Audiences can expect to see golf clubs instead of swords and hear Southern accents instead of Elizabethan tones speaking Shakespeare's words.

"This is one of Shakespeare's lighter comedies," said Andersen, the show director. "It is a precursor to the modern sitcom. It is silly fun."

Granted, given it is Shakespeare, scholars still write stuffy, intellectual papers about "The Merry Wives of Windsor," but to pull Harold Bloom's "Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human" from the book shelf seems to capsize the light spirit rocking this production.

After all, the VSU show includes a swinging dance number with Ian C. Bingham's Falstaff leading the cast through the rocking "Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance)."

Queen Elizabeth I loved the comic Falstaff from the tragic Henry plays so much that she wanted to see him fall in love, so Shakespeare wrote "Merry Wives" to please her, Andersen said, adding at least that's how the story goes.

The Falstaff in "Merry Wives" is and isn't the same Falstaff who is the drinking buddy of Prince Hal in the "Henry IV" plays.

Still, Falstaff remains "the Hamlet of clowns," Andersen said.

But why set the 400-year-old "Wives" in a South Georgia golf club?

"This is a story that is not bound to an Elizabethan understanding, it's timeless," Andersen said in his director's notes. "Many of Shakespeare's plays are timeless due to the themes that they address; be it love, greed, death, jealousy ... This play deals with the volatile, but simultaneously, profoundly empathetic potential of contemporary society. It is a true melting pot of eclectic human beings that come together to form a community. I think this is a story as poignant today as it ever was."

Plus, he added, the music from the 1960s is much better.

THE CAST: Ian C. Bingham, Alex Seelmeyer, Molly Armstrong, Marcus McGhee, Susanna Lloyd, Kalab Quinn, Mason Ebert, Quint Paxton, Trey Harrell, David Bass, Drew Champion, Hope Clayborne, Suzanna Gaston, Annabelle Rose, Meg Hashem, Arianna Mangus, El Marroquin, Shelby Hughes, Gabe Rodriguez, Kowi Troupe, Eriana Jones, Emily Brooks, Bridget Walsh, Meredith Reitz, Allyssa Barber, Malaysia Dorsey, Shy'tavian Jenkins, Anna Noelle Robinson.

VSU Theatre & Dance presents Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor," 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 14, and Saturday, April 15; 3 p.m. Sunday, April 16; and 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 17, Sawyer Theatre, VSU Fine Arts Building, corner of Oak and Brookwood. Reservations, more information: More information: Call (229) 333-5973 or visit www.valdosta.edu/comarts.