[In the excerpted review below, Bemrose assesses the Stratford Festival production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Richard Monette and Antoni Cimolino and starring William Hutt as Falstaff. Bemrose finds that too much of the comic subtlety in the play was overstated.]

The opening playbill also includes Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Richard Monette and Antoni Cimolino, and starring William Hutt as Falstaff—in the first of three major roles he is undertaking this season. The directors have set this tale of seduction and revenge in the Victorian period—while making Hutt's Falstaff, with his rakishly set top hat and red waistcoat, seem like a holdover from the earlier, more libertine days of the Georgians. This allows the great-bellied buffoon to appear as even more of an outsider than he usually does, and provides Hutt with several opportunities for pathos. And though the actor occasionally indulges in showing off his golden voice a little too much, the scene in which he totters back to his lodgings after having been dumped in the river is a marvel of understated comedy.

Too much in the production, however, is overstated: it tries so hard to convey gusto and excitement that it frequently spins right out of focus. There is too much frenzied motion, and there are too many corny gags involving an opinionated cuckoo clock and slamming windows. It takes a strong actor to establish his presence in this maelstrom: one of the few who manages, apart from Hutt, is Stephen Ouimette, whose inspired swordplay as the fiery Doctor Caius is beyond hilarity.