Central Park’s Delacorte Theater to Present Shakespeare Play This Summer

By Don Driggers

The Public Theater has just announced that Shakespeare in the Park, which plays outdoors at Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre will return this summer. A statement from the theater reads:

We have spent the last year getting ready. We have been producing new work and preparing a safe return. We’ve grieved, Zoomed, innovated, supported our communities, and connected our city. We’ve gathered brilliant artists to imagine summer under the stars in Central Park and are planning a return of Free Shakespeare in the Park beginning July 5 through August 29, with MERRY WIVES, a fresh and joyous adaptation, by Jocelyn Bioh, of Shakespeare’s MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR directed by our Associate Artistic Director and Resident Director Saheem Ali.

This will not be a traditional production of a Shakespeare classic, it will instead be a “woke” adaption, including a mostly black cast.

“Set in South Harlem amidst a vibrant and eclectic community of West African immigrants, MERRY WIVES will be a celebration of Black joy, laughter, and vitality. A New York story about the tricks of the heart, performed in the heart of the City”, the Public Theater stated in a press release.

The Merry Wives of Windsor or Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play’s title is a reference to the town of Windsor, also the location of Windsor Castle, in Berkshire, England. It is one of the least acclaimed Shakespeare work by critics and historians.

With “woke” academics targeting all European and American art and culture as racist, there have been efforts to actually stop teaching Shakespeare in High School and University; it comes as no shock that the popular free outdoor theater series, has succumbed to wokeness and moved an English comedy out of Windsor and into Harlem.

Since 1962, over five million people have enjoyed more than 150 free productions of Shakespeare and other classical works and musicals at The Delacorte Theater. Conceived by founder Joseph Papp as a way to make great theater accessible to all, The Public’s Free Shakespeare in the Park continues to be the bedrock of the Company’s mission to increase access and engage the community.

Public theater stated: in partnership with City officials, health and safety experts, and with our theatrical unions, the performance schedule, safety protocols, and free ticket distribution details will be forthcoming over the next several weeks.”