THE acclaimed Festival Players Theatre Company are touring the country this summer with a dynamic all-male outdoor production of Shakespeare’s farce, The Merry Wives of Windsor, arriving at Tetbury’s Goods Shed on June 3 and The Museum in the Park in Stroud on June 14.

The Festival Players from Gloucestershire have been touring professional outdoor Shakespeare productions for over 30 years, and will be taking the play across the UK and into Europe until August 29.

Presented in full costume, an all-male company brings the fun of this the most farcical of all of Shakespeare’s plays, bustling with colourful characters and full of intrigues and physical gags, in a crystal-clear and fast-paced two-hour production.

The story centres on Falstaff, the ‘Fat Knight’ who also appears in Henry IV as drinking buddy of young Prince Henry.

Down on his luck and staying in Windsor, the roguish and foolish Falstaff plans to seduce not one but two married women so he can get his hands on their husbands’ money.

However, the wiley wives of Windsor prove more than a match for him in this hilarious comedy.

Festival Players’ artistic director Michael Dyer said: “Our shows are an amalgam of energy, entertainment and colour and we aim to make them clear and transparent, as well as keeping them short for the comfort of our patrons. We set out to take audiences of all ages on a journey and make them feel very much part of the production.”

A small cast of six play multiple roles demanding quick costume changes, as well as performing as singers and musicians.

It will be directed by Worcestershire based Dyer, former director of Cornwall’s Minack Open Air Theatre.

Stratford-based actor Mark Spriggs is returning to the company as Falstaff this summer. In last year’s tour of Hamlet he played Claudius, and in 2015 he was a memorable Falstaff in Henry IV.

Newcomers to the company this year are William Ross-Fawcett, Samuel Griffiths, Stephen Horncastle, Connor Reed and Paul Valentine.

Music has been specially written for The Merry Wives of Windsor by folk star Johnny Coppin (front man of the cult Seventies folk-rock group Decameron).

Gloucestershire-based Coppin, who regularly tours the folk and acoustic circuit, adds a special ingredient with his original songs and instrumentals involving all the cast.

  •  For tickets and a full list of dates in your area visit thefestivalplayers.co.uk/tour