Sir John Falstaff, formerly of the Prescott Troop of Cavalry, Dragoons, returns to the riverside town of Prescott, to retire, make trouble, and enjoy plenty of the town's legendary Wiser's Whiskey. He plans to seduce housewives Meg Page and Alice Ford, but they get wind of his scheme and decide to teach him a lesson. Complications and subplots abound, in Shakespeare's The Merrie Wives of Windsor, transported to Ontario, as a comic celebration of early-20th-century Canadian life.Year Printed: 2013
First Produced: In 2010 at St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, Prescott, ON.
Based on The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare.
Running Time: 105 minutes
Acts: 2
Male Cast: 11
Female Cast: 8
Total Cast: 19
Comments: "Trouble on Dibble Street" was commissioned by the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, Prescott, Ontario, as part of the 2010 celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the founding of Prescott. Music is an important part of every St. Lawrence production, and it is part of the Festival's casting policy that all actors should be able to sing and play an instrument. Thus the number of musicians equaled the number of actors, plus a fiddler and an ASM who sang. The one instance of doubling took place when the actor playing Abraham Slender, Ron Klappholz, doubled briefly as Mother Pratt, the Wide Witch of New Wexford, a non-speaking (though hooting and hollering) role.