SOURCE: Green, William. Review of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Shakespeare Bulletin 20, no. 2 (spring 2002): 29.

In the following excerpt, Green reviews Lillian Groag's 2002 Oregon Shakespeare Festival production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. The critic contends that the production fulfilled Shakespeare's aim of “writing a play to entertain” and praises the colorful costumes, happy mood, and setting.

In her director's notes in the program, Lillian Groag, following a long tradition, stresses that The Merry Wives of Windsor is a farce. She particularly sees it as a farce that focuses on the rise of the middle class in Elizabethan England and the importance of family values to that society. (Those familiar with the background of Merry Wives are, of course, aware that with its Windsor locale it is Shakespeare's only play depicting village life and set in contemporary England.) Groag successfully melds the farce elements with her societal comments without...