Falstaff, in my opinion is one of the funniest characters in all of Shakespeare's writing. He's funny in Henry IV (parts One and Two) and he's really funny in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Most of the funny parts come not from what he does but what is done to him by Mistresses Ford and Page and Mistress Quickley. He gets put into a hamper with dirty clothes, he has to dress up as an old fat woman, and then, at the end of the play, he is told to dress as "Hern the Hunter" and meet Mistress Ford in the woods. But they fool him again hilariously."Hern the Hunter" was a hunter in service of Richard II, but was mortally wounded protecting the King from a white hare during a hunt. A local Wizard brought him back to health using his magical powers, which entailed tying the dead animal's antlers on Herne's head. In return, however, Herne had to give up his hunting skills. Later in the tale he is hung from a tree in Windsor Park...the very place where this scene is set.
In this final scene, Falstaff is usually shown with a full rack of antlers on his head. In my 1950s version, however, I thought that antlers wouldn't work. "What looks like antlers and was big in the 1950s," I though. And then it came to me...TV Antennas!!! The Antennas would be much bigger than I drew them (I ran out of paper!!) and stuck into a fedora that would double the one he would wear in the earlier scenes. I like the fact that the rest of him isn't really disguised (he would wear a polka dot hankie over his face as he enters - Jesse James style).
The final scene also has people dressed as Faeries of the Woods, but you'll have to stay tuned to see those!
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