Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic Theatre and Northern Broadsides are to join forces to stage William Shakespeare’s medley of comedy and farce The Merry Wives.
Directed by and featuring Northern Broadsides artistic director Barrie Rutter in the role of Sir John Falstaff, the new production will open at the New Vic before touring nationally until 28 May.
The Merry Wives, known in Shakespeare’s day as The Merry Wives of Windsor, is set in the 1920s in the North of England: Sir John Falstaff is past his prime and skint. He attempts rather clumsily to seduce a couple of well-to-do wives. But Mistress Page and Mistress Ford get wise to his plan and decide to exact revenge with hilarious consequences.
Northern Broadsides previously staged The Merry Wives in 1993 and 2001.
Rutter will play Falstaff for the third time. His other work includes the title roles in Jonathan Miller’s productions of King Lear in 2015 and Githa Sowerby’s Rutherford and Son, edited by Blake Morrison, in 2013. He also directed and featured in Broadsides’ award-winning co-production with the New Vic Theatre of Deborah McAndrew’s An August Bank Holiday Lark in 2014.
Rutter previously worked for the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2014 he was awarded an OBE for services to drama.
The Merry Wives will be Northern Broadsides’ seventh co-production with the New Vic. Previous shows include Shakespeare’s The Tempest in 2007, The Canterbury Tales in 2010 and Love’s Labour’s Lost in 2012.
The Merry Wives will open at the New Vic from 5 until 27 February and will then tour to Dean Clough in Halifax, Hull Truck Theatre, The Lowry in Salford, Rose Theatre Kingston, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Everyman Theatre Cheltenham which will coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield, York Theatre Royal and Liverpool Playhouse.