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The Constant Wife
- Tour.
Playwright - Somerset Maugham.
Director - Mark Piper. (from original West End Direction of this
production - Edward Hall.)
Designer - Michael Pavelka.
Lighting Designer - Ben Ormerod.
Sound Designer - Simon Whitehorn.
Producer - Bill Kenwright.Website
Cast - here .
Venue - Kings Theatre, .Leven St Edinburgh BO 0131 529 6000
Secure 72 hr email booking + info available at www.eft.co.uk
Dates - 6 - 11 Oct at 7:30pm Mats Wed & Sats at 2:30pm.
2003 Tour Dates and Times - here.
Seen to review at Kings Theatre, Edinburgh.
Run Time - 2 hours 15 mins including one interval.
Reviewer - Thelma Good.
Throughly modern Middletons.
Gathering in Constance Middleton's beautiful 1920s drawing room are her
sister, Martha, who in her mother's words "has come out and gone
in again", Mrs Culver their Mother, and Constance's widowed friend
Barbara, stylishly played by Maev Alexander. Martha, a woman who
has given up looking attractive, a marvellous comic creation from Susan
Penhaligon, believes she must aprise her sister of the truth, her
mother, Virginia Stride in fine form, is clear she should not.
It's a lovely study of women ganging up on another female, Maugham clearly
knew the fairer sex's flaws. It also shows he was interested in what and
who a truly new woman might be.
Soon Lisa Goddard in the title role of Constance enters this den
of lionesses, it's one which suits her beautifully as she outmanoeuvres
all her friends' and relations' attempts to look after her over the course
of the play. The room fills up with more complications when Maire-Louise,
Constance's best friend appears, a slightly dipsy blonde played with a
deft touch by Sara Crowe, she knows all about the goings-on with
Constance's husband but for different reasons.
Reasons which mean when John Middleton, Robert East, arrives he
has to be quick footed. Then a delectable former suitor arrives in the
form of Michael Praed's attractively played Bernard Kersal. Monocled
businessman Mortimer Durham, Robin Browne, appears to add further
complications in the second act. Is Constance a saint or a fool is one
of the fascinations of the proceedings, and the period setting rarely
gets in the way of the timeless challenge of coupledom.
Each well directed entrance in this play pushes more and more energy and
interest into the plot, coupled with costumes to interest the eye and
compliment Michael Pavelka's set. It suggests the Edwardian past with
a copy of John Singer Sargent's portrait Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, and hints
at Art Deco designs to come with the mirrored surround to the entrance.
Just occasionally a line falls flat, they're not quite as wittily honed
as Wilde's, but are thankfully less hammered home than Shaw's.
What fidelity is and to tell or not to tell the innocent party in a marriage
is still an issue nowadays. Maugham's play, despite being written in 1926
and set in that time when women were finding their feet and the vote,
really makes some strikingly modern points. By the end the radical look
Maugham's Constance takes on marriage has you wondering how many of us
today could handle things as well as the Middletons.
© Thelma Good 6 October 2003. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Cast: Bentley, the butler - Richard Bardsley,
Mrs Culver - Virginia Stride, Martha Culver - Susan Penhaligon, Barbara
Fawcett - Maev Alexander, Canstance Middleton - Liza Goddard, Maire-Louise
Durham - Sara Crowe, - John Middleton, FRCS - Robert East, Bernard Kersal
- Michael Praed and Mortimer Durham - Robin Browne.
2003 Tour Details of Bill Kenwright's production
of The Constant Wife .
Tour from Edinburgh onwards
6th Oct to11th Oct King's Theatre, Edinburgh
Mon-Sat 19:30. Wed, Sat Mat 14:30
13th Oct to 18 Oct Key Theatre, Peterborough
Mon-Sat 19:30. Thu, Sat Mats 14:30
3 Nov to 8 Nov Palace Theatre, Westcliff
Mon-Sat 20:00. Wed, Sat Mat 14:30
10 Nov to15 Nov Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
Mon-Thu 19:45. Fri, Sat 20:00. Thu, Sat Mats 14:30
17 Nov to 22 Nov Theatre Royal, Norwich
19:30. Wed, Sat Mats 14:30
2 Dec to 6 Dec Theatre Royal, Nottingham
19:30. Wed Mat 14:00. Sat Mat 14:30
Tour ends
Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is
thelma@edinburghguide.com
Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted
for any errors or omissions.
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