Photos: Felicia Curry and More in MERRY WIVES at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Shakespeare Theatre Company is presenting Merry Wives. The first show of STC’s forthcoming 40th Anniversary Season, Merry Wives is adapted by Jocelyn Bioh and directed by Taylor Reynolds (Studio Theatre’s Fat Ham). Merry Wives plays STC’s Harman Hall through October 5.

In Merry Wives, William Shakespeare’s farce gets a joyful spin from playwright Bioh (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding), dropping the debaucherous Falstaff into the melting pot of modern Harlem. Short on cash, Falstaff pursues the purses of two sharp-witted West African wives. As their proud husbands’ suspicions rise, the wives cook up a scheme to shame the would-be homewrecker and prove that “wives may be merry, and yet honest too” in this celebration of community and Black joy.

Felicia Curry and Oneika Phillips will play the merry wives themselves, Madam Ford and Madam Page, respectively. Curry is an award-winning local favorite familiar to D.C. audiences, who previously appeared in STC’s production of Our Town, as well as the recent Broadway revival and National Tour of Into the Woods. Phillips’s Broadway credits include FELA!, Spongebob Squarepants, and the recent 2022 revival and National Tour of 1776, which featured an all-female, nonbinary, and transgender cast.

Photo credit: Teresa Castracane Photography