Tickets are now on sale for the 2025 season of the Central Coast Shakespeare Festival, this year featuring not one but two reasons to enjoy gorgeous Central Coast evening productions outdoors at the Filipponi Ranch.
The Merry Wives of Windsor by the Bard himself takes the outdoor stage on July 17 through August 10, and a new work by local playwright Weston Scott, Odysseus Dies at the End, plays for four performances only October 4-12.
Shakespeare’s tale of trickery, comeuppance, and revenge give us broke and bombastic knight Sir John Falstaff, who tries to seduce two wealthy wives for financial gain. But the clever ladies are way ahead of him, setting him up for a series of hilarious pranks. Meanwhile, young Anne Page dodges unwanted suitors, Mistress Quickly relishes the chaos, and Sir Hugh Evans just wants a nice piece of cheese. Come see who gets the last laugh.
In Scott’s new play, Odysseus has traveled over the waters, flirted with disaster, and bested every foe (and his friends and family hate him for it). As he tries to escape a fateful prophecy, he faces a murderous son, a semi-devoted wife, a scorned sea-witch, a boy with a cow, the cow itself, and a Greek chorus, all trying to make sense of their lives when everything has always revolved around Odysseus. Adapted from the fragments of a lost Sophocles play, Odysseus Dies at the End examines the life of a legend from the perspective of the people clinging to his coattails. Spoiler alert: he dies at the end.
Tickets for the July 17 preview night of The Merry Wives of Windsor are just $10, and enjoy “pay what you can” performances on July 25 and August 1.
All tickets for Odysseus Dies at the End are “pay what you can,” with donations taken online and at the box office.