All The World Is A Jest

Join Chicago Shakespeare Theater for the riotous comeuppance of Sir John Falstaff! The third play of Shakespeare's to include the errant 'fat Knight' Falstaff, Merry Wives of Windsor is a buoyant and breezy comedy that blends belly-laughs, disguises, mishaps, and hijinks-a-plenty to create a hilarious swan song for what is said to be Queen Elizabeth I's favorite of his characters. Directed by Phillip Breen - the absolute authority of Merry Wives, this is surely one of Shakespeare's most genuinely hilarious works.

What is the story?

Down on his luck, famed bounder Sir John Falstaff decides to turn his fortunes around by scamming two married women with identical love letters, hoping that at least one of them falls for his ploy and shares her husband's fortune with him. 

Unfortunately, things don't quite go to plan, and he's thwarted by the merry wives of Windsor at every turn, who on discovering his duplicity decide to take their revenge together. But whether he's berated by forest demons or thrown into the Thames, Falstaff retains his sense of humor and his 'joie de vivre' to the very end.