(RED BANK, NJ) --  Two River Theater continues its 2016/17 Season with Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Eric Tucker. This production explores the darker undercurrent of one of Shakespeare’s silliest comedies. Performances will begin in Two River’s Marion Huber Theater, 21 Bridge Avenue, on Saturday, February 25 and continue through Sunday, March 26.  In addition, Two River will present A Little Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor, a 75-minute version of the play—adapted and directed by Nicole A. Watson and designed by professional artists—on the stage of the Rechnitz Theater.

In The Merry Wives of Windsor, the lecherous buffoon John Falstaff (perhaps Shakespeare’s greatest comic character) decides to seduce both Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, respectable married women of Windsor. When the two women immediately see through Falstaff’s plot, they decide to turn the tables on him and devise a plot of their own—for hilarious revenge.

Adaptor and director Eric Tucker was named the Wall Street Journal’s Director of the Year in 2014. He is the Artistic Director of Bedlam Theatre, where his credits include Sense & Sensibility, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Saint Joan, and Hamlet.

Says Artistic Director John Dias, “Eric Tucker’s work as a director is imaginative and inventive; he distills the theatricality of Shakespeare’s plays into intimate, small-scale productions that capture the fullness of the text. He wrestles with the plays—and, at the same time, is deeply respectful of them. He makes Shakespeare’s language joyously accessible to audiences.  And our three marvelous actors—Nicole Lewis, Jason O’Connell, and Zuzanna Szadkowski—bring an extraordinary combination of physical comedy and fresh, performative use of language to their work.”

Nicole Lewis has appeared on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning revival of Hair and as Joanne in Rent, among other productions in New York and around the country; her TV credits include The Blacklist and Mozart in the Jungle.

Jason O’Connell concocted the idea to perform The Merry Wives of Windsor with only three actors alongside a fellow actor, Dan Matisa. He recently enjoyed a long run in Bedlam’s acclaimed production of Sense & Sensibility; he also won accolades for his performance as both Bottom and Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Pearl Theatre, a co-production with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, where he has performed for eight seasons.

Zuzanna Szadkowski played Dorota in the CW’s hit drama series Gossip Girl and can be seen as Nurse Pell on the Cinemax series from Steven Soderbergh, The Knick. Her theater credits include The Comedy of Errors as part of the Public Theater’s Mobile Shakespeare Unit and Nora and Delia Ephron’s Love, Loss and What I Wore.

The creative team for The Merry Wives of Windsor includes scenic designer Lee Savage, costume designer Jessica Pabst, lighting designer Eric Southern, and sound designer Karin Graybash. The casting is by Heidi Griffiths & Kate Murray, and the production stage manager is Brett Anders.

During the run of The Merry Wives of Windsor, from March 7-12, Two River will present A Little Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor, a 75-minute version of the play—adapted and directed by Nicole A. Watson and designed by professional artists—on the stage of the Rechnitz Theater. Eighteen students from area high schools will perform in the production and an additional 10 students are working behind the scenes assisting each member of the artistic team.  The 28 students are from 12 area high schools. There will be eight performances, including four student matinees geared toward audiences age 9 and up. Student matinees include an in-school pre-show workshop for each class conducted by a professional Two River teaching artist, as well as a talkback after the show with the student actors.

The Merry Wives of Windsor and A Little Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor are supported by Shakespeare in American Communities, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

Ticket prices for The Merry Wives of Windsor range from $50 to $70, with discounts available for groups, seniors, and U.S. military personnel, their families, and veterans. A limited number of $20 tickets are available for every performance; $20 tickets may be partial view. Tickets for patrons under 30 are $20 and include the best available seats at every performance. Tickets are available from tworivertheater.org or 732.345.1400.