I can’t imagine my life any differently to who I am now. I guess when I was in high school (years ago lol) and growing up gay, I didn’t feel the same. But today I’m thankful that I am. Being gay has given me a joy and friendships that I wouldn’t change in any way, not to mention going to clubs when I first came out (and picking up QX magazine!) It’s also given me a unique perspective on stories, and whilst not everything I write has an LGBTQIA+ element , most of them do.
So when I wanted to write a modern day retelling of The Merry Wives of Windsor, I knew one of the characters had to be gay – Slender! (His actual name is Slender!) In the original he’s almost forced into marrying Anne, so in this version I’ve made them royalty (don’t ask) and now Anne decides to find another gay prince for Slender to marry. In doing so, she finds her own true love.
It’s a twist on the classic rom com, which I love (I LOVED the rom com BROS, because it was finally a story where the guy chases the guy) and there’s no reason why I can’t write those stories for the stage and use Shakespeare as inspiration. There’s a great line in & Juliet, where Shakespeare’s wife says something like ‘This from a man who’s based his career on men dressing as women,’ and who knows what it was really like in the 15-1600s, but I like to think at the very least, Shakespeare’s stages were full of campness.
It’s funny that all Shakespeare ever did was sit in a room & make stuff up, (like seriously, that’s all he did!) but we’ve put him on such a high pedestal to the point that the language and most of his work’s actually alienates certain people (like the younger me) who won’t see a piece of theatre because of it. I hadn’t known much about The Merry Wives at all until around 2016, and I wanted to look at it in more detail because it must be one of the earliest romantic comedies ever written.
There is also one of the first poo jokes in the original, but anyway, it turns out Shakespeare can be bloody funny, and that’s true of this version.
Ultimately it would be great if a young person in high school saw this version, and because it’s in the modern language, understood it, and because of that was able to write up an essay on it, they’d pass because they’ve actually understood what’s going on.
It’s an irreverent, modern day rom com inspired by The Merry Wives. There are some bits that will be very familiar to audiences of, and other scenes, even characters that are brand new.
We’re currently in rehearsals now and another twist on the original is we have an all-female cast. The synopsis for the show is as follows:
Both the young royals hate their lives, and while Anne refuses to believe in love for herself, she vows to find Slender a gay Royal Prince to marry, completely disregarding the fact she’s fallen in love with Fenton, a commoner.
Princes, and even princesses (especially fake ones!) come and go, and finding that elusive gay prince proves more difficult than our Anne had imagined. Surely it’s not like that all over the world?
Meanwhile, Falstaff tries to set up dates with her mother Meg and best friend Alice. By sending messages to and fro, the pair of best friends make a deal to get revenge on Falstaff the lech by inviting him round for morning tea. Hijinks ensue (this is Shakespeare after all!). During the wedding ceremonies, Falstaff get his comeuppance as the merry wives fulfil their desire for vengeance. Anne realises that she can have love for herself and find love with someone else; Anne tricks everyone, especially the parents, so she can marry Fenton. And she’s not done too badly with getting the Slender hitched either!
