The Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival

The Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival is back for its third year, with one summer weekend jam-packed with theater classics. The hills of Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill will be alive with the sounds of Much Ado About Nothing from Wooden O Theatre, The Country Wife from Theater Schmeater, and The Merry Wives of Windsor from GreenStage.

The Merry Wives of Windsor:
Featuring the clownish anti-hero of the Henry plays, Falstaff, in the new role of hopeful lover and con-man. Falstaff, between wars and down on his luck, turns his irresistible charms on two remarkable wives of Windsor to seduce them of their money and their modesty. These merry women turn the rascal’s plots back on him in a hilarious tale of the war on virtue. Add a jealous husband with a penchant for disguise, a daughter with too many suitors, and a town with too many accents and you’ve Shakespeare’s lightest, quickest, most contemporary comedy.

A chaste country woman, her jealous husband, his city-wise sister, her suitors, a trio of unrepentant ladies’ men and several society ladies in pursuit of pleasure (so long as their reputations remain spotless) fill this Restoration comedy with intricate intrigues. Through wit, disguise, mistaken identity, word-play, cross-dressing, and misdirection, The Country Wife juggles love in all its guises while ensuring that the good are rewarded, the bad get away unpunished, and even the cuckolds find a version of the story they can live with.

Much Ado About Nothing begins at the end of a war as the brave soldiers successfully return to Mesina. For Benedick, however, the skirmishes are not over. He and Beatrice, in compulsive mutual antagonism, swiftly take up again the “merry war” of words that always enlivens their encounters and entertains their friends. But not all are suited for civilian life. Like his fellow officers, Don John regards deception as an amusement and he is determined to cause strife even after the guns have silenced.

Schedule:
Saturday July 19
2:00 – Much Ado About Nothing
4:30 – The Country Wife
7:00 – The Merry Wives of Windsor

Sunday July 20
2:00 – The Merry Wives of Windsor
4:30 – The Country Wife
7:00 – Much Ado About Nothing