Originally written by W. Somerset Maugham, this fresh, scintillating adaptation of A Constant Wife is a true delight from the first unexpected moment until the final click of a closing door. Laura Wade has mined the treasure trove that is Maugham’s comic masterpiece and cut, modernised, added and skilfully refined every aspect.
Constance Middleton is happily married to successful Harley Street surgeon John. Well … she should be happy, for she is a perfect wife, has coped with her daughter going off to boarding school and is surrounded by all the trappings of wealth, breeding and privilege.
But her husband is having an affair with her ditzy best friend, her waspish-tongued mother has the empathy of an acerbic snake, her ferociously independent sister is obsessed with an interior design business and it seems the only person in whom she can confide is the butler. Throw in the return of a still-besotted former boyfriend as well as the discovery of an incriminating cigarette case and the mixture simmers with farcical results.
There are real issues being explored alongside the perennial male/female relationship trope too, including women’s financial independence and sexual responsibility. And it is a hoot!
A superb cast – led by Kara Tointon as Constance – all deliver faultless comic performances, with perfect timing, intonation and oodles of clever stage business: slick, confident, intuitive acting at its best.
RSC productions have a deserved reputation for innovation: this production uses simple movement and clever set changes to keep the action rolling along with momentary twists that make you pause laughing and reflect on society’s changing expectations.
Anna Flesichle’s exquisite set, all art deco oozing slightly studied sophistication, is beautiful and the costumes – oh, the costumes! – which Anna designed with Cat Fuller, are worth the ticket price in their own right. Jamie Cullum’s stunning score has echoes of early jazz, Noel Coward, George Gershwin and Cole Porter. Director Tamara Harvey has woven all the elements of this fabulous play into a production that flows seamlessly with never a wasted second. And it easily passed the two great tests of a play built around marriage: couples were nudging each other as if to say, ‘That’s you!’, and couples left the theatre holding hands (or not!) and talking about their own marriages. Catch this unmissable production.
John Billington
Runs at Lighthouse, Poole’s centre for the Arts until Saturday May 2nd.
