![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/02\/Colleen-Barry-scaled.jpg?_t=1738746025\")
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Pilbeam said the show is being amplified by Ballarat actor Barry Kay in the lead role, who previously played Theseus in Bard in Buninyong’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.<\/p>\n
“Part of the reason we put this on was the possibility of having Barry as Falstaff,” she said.<\/p>\n
“He’s a great performer and this is a perfect role for him and something he’s always wanted to do. Falstaff is a real iconic role from Shakespeare that appears in three plays.<\/p>\n
“He’s that wonderful mixture of charm and dodginess. Falstaff is larger-than-life and Barry himself, who’s about six-foot-something, is as well.”<\/p>\n
Rehearsals started early last month, with pre-production also including a mask-making workshop from local creative Colleen Burke.<\/p>\n
Each show will be preceded with 15 minutes of live music from local performers.<\/p>\n
“When we started the company, it was very small scale, and we’ve become a much more entrenched part of our own community,” Pilbeam said.<\/p>\n
“Last year we also did Titus Andronicus in Ballarat and we’re looking at doing another winter show. We’ve also got CresFest and have been working at different schools.<\/p>\n
“The company has diversified a bit. The actors as well as the community are driving us to do various things.”<\/p>\n
The Bard in Buninyong’s The Merry Wives of Windsor production will open tonight at 7pm, followed by 1pm and 7pm sessions on Saturday, and again at 1pm on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The schedule will be repeated next weekend.<\/p>\n
Tickets are $5 for children, $15 concession, $30 adult, and $60 for two adults and two children, and can be booked at bit.ly\/40HdUeW.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AN evening of Shakespearean humour will soon be had at Buninyong Botanic Gardens courtesy of local theatre company The Bard in Buninyong. Kicking off tonight, Friday 7 February, the troupe is set to regale audiences with a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Artistic director Susan Pilbeam said the show, the company’s seventh production […]<\/p>\n