The Country Wife

Court One, Christchurch

05/05/2007 - 02/06/2007

Production Details


by William Wycherley
directed by Elric Hooper


Bustling with action and featuring exquisite recreations of period dress, The Country Wife is irresistibly tempting. William Wycherley’s comic masterpiece was created for the ravenous and increasingly insatiable theatre goers of London in 1675. They demanded fast-paced, complex plots and, most importantly, they wanted them laced with lurid sexual innuendo.

The two story lines are indelicate: a highly ambiguous hero who feigns impotence to gain entrance to the ladies’ chambers, and a young ingénue, The Country Wife, who arrives in London to discover the pleasures of the city – and its men. The result was deemed so outrageous that in spite of a huge success at Drury Lane … it was banned for over 170 years.

Today The Country Wife is admired as much for its sharp social satire as its reputation as the wittiest and most bawdy play of its time.

For more information or to book, phone the Box Office on (03) 963-0870 or book online.


CAST (in order of appearance)
HORNER . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Michael Edward

QUACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Martin Howells

BOY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Edward Close

SIR JASPER FIDGET . . . Geoffrey Heath

LADY FIDGET . . . . . . . . . Susan Curnow

MRS DAINTY FIDGET . . Amy Straker

HARCOURT . . . . . . . . . . . Lawrence Smythe

DORILANT . . . . . . . . . . . . Kyle Chuen

PINCHWIFE . . . . . . . . . . . Ross Gumbley

MRS PINCHWIFE . . . . . . .Elsie Edgerton-Till

ALITHEA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Claire Dougan

MRS SQUEAMISH . . . . . . Jane Donald

LUCY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lynda Milligan

OLD LADY SQUEAMISH . Judie Douglass

PARSON/GOD . . . . . . . . . . Michael Greenwood
 
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elric Hooper MBE
Choreographer . . . . . . . Sandra Rasmussen
Set Design . . . .. . . . . . . .Tony Geddes
Costume Design . . . . . . Elizabeth Whiting
Sound/
Lighting Design . . . . . . Joe Hayes
Properties . . . . . . . . . . . Nicki Evans & Louisa Davis
Production Manager . . Chris O'Mahony
Stage Manager . . . . . . . Anna Dodgshun
Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . Geoff Nunn


Theatre ,


2 hrs 40 mins, incl. interval

Generously laced with theatricality

Review by Lindsay Clark 07th May 2007

Something extraordinary and wonderful is happening on the Mainstage at The Court. Extraordinary because after all the years and in the face of contemporary brutalism, this filigreed piece of theatre – William Wycherley’s The Country Wife – still packs such impact; wonderful, thanks to direction from the masterly Elric Hooper, an inspired design team and an impeccable cast.

Forget the Restoration nightmares you probably stumbled through at school, struggling with the intricacies of verbal wit and intricate plot until the characters were nothing much more than a collection of insinuative names.

This production flies by and though the first half especially calls for concentration  to follow every turn of phrase and action, the work onstage is irresistible.

Underpinning the surface goings on, in which an innocent country lass is introduced to city life in all its licentiousness, is a strong statement about the pitfalls of loveless unions and the idiocy of the conventions which make them possible. Conventions have changed a little, but the human foibles which sustained them in Wycherley’s world, are as familiar as ever.

Naughtiness is always in fashion and as watchable as ever, especially got up in the brilliant costumes designed by Elizabeth Whiting.

How satisfying too, to read programme notes from the director that really illuminate both the creative choices made in production and significant facts about the play itself. Explanations about the influence of Moliere, the choice of incidental music from Charpentier and the tracking of  appropriate devices to convey period without unaffordable expense remind us of the depth of scholarship Elric Hooper brings with him. This first production for The Court since his departure in 2000 is worth the wait.

His cast defines the range of characters with elegant precision. Geoffrey Heath as Sir Jasper Fidget is a polished portrait of self delusion, well matched by Susan Curnow as his scheming and sophisticated lady. Horner, the falsely styled eunuch, whose lecherous appetite fuels most of the action, is the epitome of masculine glamour in the hands of Michael Edward and the foppish ninny Sparkish (Timothy Bartlett) furnishes a  delectable study in superficiality.

The key roles of Pinchwife and his Country Wife, Marjorie, are delivered in superb style by Ross Gumbley and Elsie Edgerton-Till. Pinchwife is all huff and puff, endowed with troublesome emotions at every turn and comically unable to do much about it. As Marjorie, and in her first appearance at The Court, Elsie Edgerton-Till glows with good health and robust, scarcely suppressed vitality .Her wide eyed, spontaneous responses to the sophisticated intrigues around her are both hilarious and a benchmark against which the excesses of society can be measured.

Sharply focused in its intentions and generously laced with theatricality, this production is decisive proof that the years need not dull a cutting edge or tarnish its sparkle.

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