NORTHERN Broadsides are mounting The Merry Wives for a third time to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.

"We did it in 1993 and 2001, but there's nothing significant in doing it again," says artistic director Barrie Rutter OBE. "Stratford [the Royal Shakespeare Company] do Twelfth Night every four years.

"We've been haemorrhaging money in the past four years; King Lear lost us thousands last year, so after doing a Shakespeare tragedy last year, there are practical reasons for why we're doing a comedy this year for the 400th anniversary.

"This comedy has the best spread of parts, 15 or 16 of them, with three very good parts for three mature women. Sixteen actors! Where do you see that apart from the RSC and we get only £200,000 in funding."

From Tuesday, you can see those 16 actors in The Merry Wives at York Theatre Royal, the latest Yorkshire stop on the 2016 tour in which Rutter not only directs the Broadsides production but plays Sir John Falstaff too.

"No-one tends to do this play because they mistrust it, but why? Henry IV is from Shakespeare's pinnacle, and the clever clogs want to read too much into the return of Falstaff, because there was a depth to Henry IV, but Shakespeare is having a laugh at all the nations, including the English, as well as the Welsh and the Scots," says Rutter. "It's also a play about the burgeoning middle class and a story of forced marriage, so there's plenty to it."

Rutter is completing a hattrick of appearances in The Merry Wives as Falstaff. "You've got to do it, haven't you. There's no other play I can do," he jokes. "So here I am at nearly 70 years of age falling into a basket. Different things do come into it each time; a different design; and I'm 'slightly older', but you have to shed what you did before as it would be an insult to the new cast to say, 'This is what happened last time'.

York Press:

Barrie Rutter as Sir John Falstaff and Becky Hindley as Mistress Ford in Northern Broadsides' The Merry Wives. Picture: Nobby Clark

"Lis Evans has given it the setting of a posh country club in 1920s' Yorkshire on the edge of Harrogate, so we've dropped Windsor from the play's title. People will come along to the play if they know this is the setting and it just opens up the play in a different way. Having music from the 1920s makes for a nice finish too."

It is often said that Shakespeare wrote The Merry Wives Of Windsor at the request of Queen Elizabeth I, but Barrie will take some convincing. "It's never been proved that she said she wanted the Fat Knight to come back and see him fall in love, but there's certainly a Fat Knight who falls in love," he says.

After playing Lear last year, Rutter has retained the flowing locks, but what else might mark his journey from Lear to Falstaff? "Oh, the folly, the blind folly that they both have!" he says.

Looking ahead, Northern Broadsides are to forge a new partnership with York Theatre Royal for a co-production of J B Priestley's When We Are Married later this year. "We've finally got the touring rights after more than 15 years of asking, and again that will be with 16 actors," says a delighted Rutter. Watch this space for further developments.

Northern Broadsides present The Merry Wives at York Theatre Royal, Tuesday to Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk