Full of music, mischief, and slapstick shenanigans, The Merry Wives of Windsor is a production that audiences are calling “one of Bard’s best.”

At the heart of the chaos in The Merry Wives of Windsor are attempted love matches made between Anne Page and her many suitors, from the chronically online Slender and the charismatic captain of the Windsor Stags, Fenton, to the colourful Québecois chiropractor, Dr. Caius.

A newcomer to the Bard stages, Raf Rogers brings a wealth of experience in film/TV and improv with him as he steps into the role of The Merry Wives of Windsor’s infamous doctor/not-doctor, Dr. Caius. Read on to learn more about how Raf got his start as an actor, how his unique combination of skills led to him taking on the role of Dr. Caius, and the lessons he’s learned from his first summer under the tents.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you first discovered theatre?
I grew up in Ottawa in a family of artists. My dad’s a great visual artist, and my sister took to dance. I tried drawing and a bunch of instruments, but I never really excelled at any. What I did like, though, was making jokes. As the smallest kid in my class, I felt like I needed some kind of hook to keep people around, so I told jokes and quoted comedy bits from sketch comedy, stand-up, TV, and movies. One day, I was on the city bus to school and saw a classmate I knew. We got to chatting, and I started joking around as much as possible to keep the conversation from getting awkward. Next thing I knew, we were at our stop. As I was getting off the bus, a stranger who’d been listening said, “You should host a talk show.” It was such a random comment, but that’s kind of how the whole acting thing germinated.

My first theatre experience that really stuck with me was in university. It was a student production of The Glass Menagerie. To be honest, I wasn’t particularly engaged until the character of Jim showed up. He was excellent, but what really got me was how Laura changed. She became absolutely heartbreaking to watch and seeing that kind of vulnerability on stage was incredibly beautiful. That was the moment I really wanted to pursue acting. Since then, I’ve been in a few plays, but nothing remotely close to the scope or length of a Bard on the Beach production.

This is your first Season at Bard! How has that experience been?
Incredibly educational. So many firsts—and a million mistakes—have made this both really hard and extremely rewarding. I get to watch legends of the stage do what they do best every night, but in a way that’s so welcoming. I don’t feel intimidated when I’m sharing scenes with them. Even though I’m new to this and I ask so many basic questions, everyone’s taking the time to walk me through all the things most people learn in theatre school.

Tai Leathem, Craig Erickson, and Raf Rogers as Murderers and Munish Sharma as Macbeth in Macbeth (2026) | Photo by Emily Cooper

What was your relationship to Shakespeare heading into this Season?
I studied a few plays in high school, and that was it. There’s a bit of a weird story in how I ended up at Bard. I had seen the Bard tents for years and wondered what it took to get on that stage. Theatre’s hard enough to break into, and Bard is the top of the mountain in Vancouver—plus it’s Shakespeare. Bard felt like going from zero to a thousand. I’d been doing improv for a while and wanted to get better at improvised Shakespeare, so I auditioned for Spontaneous Shakespeare but didn’t make it in. Clearly, I wasn’t ready yet. I decided I’d be ready if I got another shot, so I took an acting class and worked on an Iago monologue from Othello. The next year, I tried again and this time I got in. After about a year with the company doing the hardest improv I could think of, I met an improviser who’d just finished Bard. I asked how she got in, and she said auditions were that week. It sounds backwards, but improv made Shakespeare feel approachable, so with this confidence, I sent in my audition tape. They basically said, “Thanks very much, but no dice.” Then a few months later, they called me back in specifically for Dr. Caius. Turns out I had a pretty unusual combination of skills: I was an improviser, I’m actually French-Canadian, and I was more comfortable with Shakespeare’s language than I’d ever been. Somehow, that was what they were looking for.

Raf Rogers as Dr. Caius and Jacob Leonard as Rugby in The Merry Wives of Windsor (2026) | Photo by Emily Cooper

You play Dr. Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and he’s a very memorable character, to say the least! What has it been like to dive into a role like this, and can you tell us a bit about how you built this character and any inspirations you might have drawn on?
I mean, it’s been super fun. A lot of it goes back to my high school days. I went to a French school, but we also spoke English, so we’d make jokes about family members mispronouncing words in either language or do skits from Têtes à claques. My friends and I also had a thing for using French words that no one actually used. For example, everyone—whether they spoke French or English—would just say “hamburger,” but we’d insist on the overly literal French term hambourgeois, or racinette instead of root beer. Then we’d build little characters and scenarios around those words. That’s also where I started playing with physical comedy: pretending to slip down the stairs, doing over-the-top fake falls, or acting like I’d slammed a door in my own face just to make my friends laugh. It was all a bit of a proving ground for the kind of absurdism I still enjoy.

As someone with an improv background, what has it been like to jump into a production like The Merry Wives of Windsor and to work with a director like Rebecca Northan?
I was so lucky because my first day was with the incomparable Rebecca Northan, and she tapped into that improv background right away by getting us up on our feet, holding our scripts, and seeing where that took us. So it was improvised but also scripted, and still being able to ad lib and try jokes and weird physical choices was a nice entry point to introduce me to professional theatre. But eventually the process changes, and it stops being, “Okay, let’s see all the ideas. Let’s play,” and starts becoming, “How do we refine this? How do we sharpen the edges of the joke?” I got so comfortable throwing out ideas that when the shift came, I still wanted to play while everyone else was like, “No, no, but now we’re working.” That was the adjustment that took me the longest.

Raf Rogers as Dr. Caius and Zahf Paroo as Evans in The Merry Wives of Windsor (2026) | Photo by Emily Cooper

In addition to your role as Dr. Caius, you are also the understudy for Evans in The Merry Wives of Windsor and for several tracks in Macbeth. What has that experience been like, especially with Dr. Caius and Evans having such an interconnected storyline?
Understudying Evans was especially tough because sometimes you’re going into a scene you know really well, but from a completely different angle. I’ve definitely said some of Caius’ lines while rehearsing as Evans. That mental shift is only part of it. It’s also tough because in The Merry Wives of Windsor, everyone has their own take on the role. You can’t just do an impression of someone else’s performance. This was difficult for me, because I kept wondering, “How much room do I have to play, and how much do I have to stick to the version that’s already been built?” You have to honour the ideas and the blocking so you don’t disrupt the scene that’s been created, but I still had to find my own way in. Zahf’s version of Evans is great because it suits him, but doesn’t necessarily fit me, so I have to use the structure he’s established but use different brush strokes to make it mine. It’s the same with Macbeth: I’m playing all three figures, two murderers, and a bunch of soldiers, so sometimes I feel like I could just play all three figures. But honestly, most days I’m just very happy to have Craig and Zahf out there with me.

Rachel Angco as Simple, Raf Rogers as Dr. Caius, and Steffanie Davis as Ms. Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor (2026) | Photo by Emily Cooper

Do you have a favourite memory or moment that stands out to you from the Season so far?
I don’t know if I have a favourite memory, but one that really stands out was from The Merry Wives of Windsor, when I jumped onto the front desk and was crying on Ms. Quickly. A helicopter flew overhead and drowned us out. Steffanie Davis said something like, “I would keep going, but this helicopter is here,” and we both started shaking our fists at it. Then I said, “We’re trying to have a moment!” It got a huge laugh. It was one of those moments you could never plan, and it reminded me why I love live theatre so much.

Is there anything that you’ve been reading/watching/listening to lately?
There’s a bunch of us in the cast who are part of a comic book reading club, and we’re currently reading DC: The New Frontier.

When you’re not under the tents at Bard, how do you like to spend your time?
I bike around a lot. I really like hanging out with my cat right now. I haven’t had much time for it lately, but if I wasn’t here, I’d probably be playing video games.

Thanks for chatting with us, Raf!

Be sure to see Raf this summer in The Merry Wives of Windsor or catch him on select Fridays in Bard After Dark!

The Merry Wives of Windsor runs until September 19 on our BMO Mainstage—tickets start at $30.