Much ado About Falstaff

Written & directed by Simon Downing

Kick In The Head follow up recent successes with Old Herbaceous, Fagin?, Three Men in a Boat and Choice Grenfell with a new play about Sir John Falstaff…a rogue, a philanderer and a glutton, but also one of Shakespeare’s greatest and enduring comic creations. 

In this new play by Simon Downing we find Falstaff, played by Giles Shenton (Old Herbaceous, Three Men in a Boat) in his bedroom in the Boars Head being nursed by Mistress Quickly played by Suzanna Walters (Choice Grenfell).

The creditors arrive demanding payment. Will Falstaff resort to marrying Mistress Quickly in order to pay off his debts? Will he turn teetotal? Will he mellow in his old age? Find out the answers to all these important questions that Shakespeare never bothered to answer and join Falstaff for an evening of jollity, frivolity, a definite lack of coequality and more Shakespearean insults than ever previously heard on a theatrical stage!

Falstaff - Giles Shenton

Mistress Quickly -  Suzanna Walters  

Future dates (click on the link below each date to book tickets)        

30 July 2021 Brixham Theatre, Brixham, Devon     

8 Aug 2021 Burrow Farm Gardens, nr Axminster, Devon (OA)

17 Sept 2021 Torch Theatre, Milford Haven, Wales

(OA) = Open Air Performance 

Past dates

21 Feb 2020 Phoenix Theatre, Bordon, Hants  

22 Feb 2020 Phoenix Theatre, Bordon, Hants   

25 Feb 2020 South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell, Berks **SOLD OUT**

1 Mar 2020 Vera Fletcher Hall, Thames Ditton, Surrey

23 May 2020 Glastonbury Abbey, Glastonbury, Somerset  ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA***  

11 June 2020 Cryer Arts Centre, Carshalton, Surrey  ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA*** 

18 June 2020 Middlesbrough Theatre, Middlesbrough, N Yorks  ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA*** 

2 July 2020 Moorland Garden Hotel, Yelverton, Devon   (OA)  ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA***  

3 July 2020 Cotswold Playhouse, Stroud, Glos  ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA***  

4 July 2020 Miserden Estate, Gloucestershire   (OA)  ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA***  

15 July 2020 Torch Theatre, Milford Haven, Wales   ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA***  

17 July 2020 Caerau Gardens, Bala, N Wales   (OA) 

26 July 2020 Sussex Prairie Gardens, Henfield, West Sussex   (OA) ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA***  

1 Aug 2020 RHS Harlow Carr, Harrogate, Yorks   (OA)  ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA***

7 Aug 2020 Avon Mill, Kingsbridge, Devon   ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA***  

8 Aug 2020 Avon Mill, Kingsbridge, Devon   ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA***  

15 Aug 2020 Trebah Gardens Amphitheatre, Cornwall   (OA)  ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA***

22 Aug 2020 Leith Hill Place, Dorking, Surrey   (OA)   ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA***  

30 Aug 2020 Weald & Downland Open Air Museum, Sussex   (OA)

12 Sept 2020 Wingfield Barns, Nr Diss, Suffolk   (OA)

13 Sept 2020 Miserden Estate, Nr Sroud, Glos   (OA)

23 Sept 2020 Brighton Open Air Theatre, East Sussex   (OA)

15 Oct 2020 Manor Pavilion Theatre, Sidmouth, Devon   ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA***  

16 Oct 2020 Cygnet Theatre, Exeter, Devon   ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA***  

2 Nov 2020 Southwold Arts Centre, Southwold, Suffolk   ***POSTPONED - NEW DATE TBA*** 

Brighton Source Review

A chilly September evening is warmed and cheered by Kick In The Head’s coming to Brighton Open Air Theatre, bringing with them their new comedy, Much Ado About Falstaff, an extra chapter of an already roguish tale and a peek at the goings-on upstairs at The Boars Head, Eastcheap.

Unsurprisingly Falstaff is in trouble again, meeting hard times with his customary lack of responsibility and choosing instead to seek solace in ale and good company. Now, with creditors hammering at the door, he must rely upon the steadfast (if occasionally muddled) Mistress Quickly to save him from ruin.

Giles Shenton effortlessly embodies all that audiences have come to know and love of Sir John Falstaff. He commands the stage with epic, rousing speech peppered with asides that win the audience within the opening moments. Opposite him is Suzanna Walters, a fantastic Mistress Quickly. As frequently foul-mouthed and jocular as the knight himself she still yet manages to anchor him to reality and stop him wandering off into his own manufactured legacy.

There is a merry war betwixt the two that is waged throughout the show, showering the action with wit, smut and an entire arsenal of entendre. It is here where Simon Downing’s writing truly excels. Less an act of imitation and more a faithful homage to that bardic comic relief we look for in the comedies and long for in the tragedies, Downing’s mastery of the language is indisputable and on display to great effect. Quickly’s loose grasp of the English language often wrongfoots a Falstaff more accustomed to spilling forth a Trumpian spew of undigested thoughts and forming the crux of his arguments from the parts that sounded prettiest. Throughout the play there is no subject matter out of bounds and no level not to be stooped to – from friars to flatulence, soliloquies to sexual health and even the occasional jibe aimed at Shakespeare himself for good measure.

More tender moments are around, particularly in the second half, and their scarcity renders them all the more poignant. A glimpse behind the mirth reveals a solemn figure reminiscing over days of long-gone glory and good times with old friends. Now as he languishes in his attempts to live up to his own legend, all the while his health failing him, the sheer hope that Quickly manages to instil in both of them – of a new life and one more adventure now to be shared – is truly touching, especially with Quickly having so long watched her own aspirations pulled apart by the whims of those around her.

But for the most part, Much Ado About Falstaff is an evening of silliness that revels in it’s humour and wit, be it bardic wordplay or fart jokes. “More Shakespearean insults than ever previously heard on a theatrical stage” is undoubtedly correct and these often find themselves met with the sharp clap of a slapstick. Kick In The Head’s latest show is a lot of good, unclean fun and embodies the spirit of the Fat Knight himself. To be enjoyed by Shakespeare lovers and haters alike it is more than worthy of it’s place in the canon.

Ethan Taylor - The Brighton Source

Brighton Open Air Theatre, Wednesday 23rd September 2020

Vera Fletcher Review

 In 1968, Britain did away with theatre censorship, after 231 years of the Lord Chamberlain retaining the absolute power to censor any play wishing to be licensed for public performance. Kick in the Head‘s latest offering, "Much Ado About Falstaff“ might never have graced any stage, had this not happened, though Shakespeare’s own works pre-dated any such censorship. Though, in truth, the very descriptive and rather flowery insults hurled back and forth across the stage between the eponymous ( Sir John) Falstaff and Mistress ( Nell) Quickly do not tend to offend a modern audience as much as they might an Elizabethan one. Indeed, the very language used is, to a modern ear, very amusing in itself...though some of the action onstage might offend us today...how humour shifts  between eras and generations! 

We first meet Falstaff in Shakespeare‘s two Henry IV plays, portrayed as the grizzled fighter , womaniser, drunkard and rogue, leading the young Prince Hal ( later that heroic Henry V ) astray. We then see him again in Henry V, cast adrift by his erstwhile companion and, perhaps to us, strange bedfellow, Prince Hal, now  King Henry V; then lastly In the  Wives of Windsor, we meet him again, once more  with Mistress Quickly, who also appears  in all 4 plays...some back story!

In Simon Downing‘s clever and agile sequel, we meet the ‚ Fond‘ couple again, in declining years, lodging at Falstaff‘s old haunt, ´the Boar‘s Headˋ, off Cheapside. Set in Sir John‘s wooden panelled chamber,  the play opens with the cries of the hawkers and the sounds of the surging crowds rising from that busy street, below. Falstaff, true to,his old profligate self, has run up yet more debts and chickens are coming home to roost, in the form of  many creditors calling up from the street and pounding on the door...True to form, Falstaff dictates the insults he would hurl at his creditors to Mistress Quickly, who is obliged to shout them through the open window, to the street below...such terms as  ´you great barrel of lardˋ,  ´you fat choughˋ are bandied about.  Mistress Quickly, naturally, is soon fed up with being used in this way and gets very free with her slapstick, to indicate the gravity of her feelings. Many of Shakespeare‘s own insults are re-employed, including many sexual innuendos.

Despite the somewhat ´Punch and Judy‘ character of the relationship and, through our 21st century gaze, there is no equality in this relationship...yet, there is much pathos and not a little tenderness underlying it...doubtless why it lasted so long. Mistress Quickly herself is no stranger to criminal activity in the past, indeed, she might even be´aiding and abettingˋ now.  Her pretensions to gentility, through marrying Sir John, are liberally sprinkled with vulgar malapropisms, with word play such as  ´fecund cherry/ fuckund cherryˋ;  ´first the thrust, now the parryˋ , with the actors leaving nothing to the imagination. His long hesitation in marrying her results in her dictating the marriage vows to him!

Shakespeare left us´ hangingˋ with the fate of so many of his characters. Will Kick in the Head resolve many of the unanswered questions...will Mistress Quickly go on covering for Falstaff? Will he elude his creditors and avoid ruin? Will Sir John  see the error of his ways, turn teetotal and marry Mistress Quickly, thus giving her the respectability she desires and will they  live happily ever after?

Giles Shenton totally inhabits the character of this brazen, yet weak charlatan, down to his most obnoxious personal habits. Suzanna Walters is the perfect sly, yet bold, despairingly emotional, yet roaring, faded beauty who once captured the roistering knight.

The set is perfection in it’s simplicity, telling a story from the very first glance.
Be prepared to roar with laughter...and be moved to empathetic tears...and identify so much of the Bard you might have forgotten you knew!

Touring the UK now, don‘t miss it!