Review: THE CONSTANT WIFE, Richmond Theatre - Tour
Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic
An impressive central performance and a sophisticated and attractive design help to lift this production and make a case for its revival, although despite Laura Wade’s coherent and engaging adaptation, this seems a surprising choice for the RSC. Now touring and partly recast since Stratford, the piece seemed at home in the comfortable and traditional surroundings of the Richmond Theatre. Good, too, to hear a cast who are all audible, and ready to engage with the somewhat mannered style needed for Somerset Maugham’s comedies.
The Constant Wife is one of his most often revived plays, last seen in the West End in 2002 and frequently before then. A shame, perhaps, that a less well-known piece had not been chosen for rediscovery, but perhaps this is the most appropriate choice for today. This tale of incipient feminism in the 1920s has echoes from Maugham’s own life; his wife Syrie was an interior decorator as is one of the main characters in this play.
Wade’s adaptation does more than rewrite some of the dialogue; she also moves various sections of the play around and adjusts the plot so that the key revelation occurs at an earlier stage. This helps to emphasise the theme of the role of women in marriage, which is certainly there in the original but brought into focus by Wade. The attractive set and costumes by Anna Flesichle incorporate clever devices to indicate the passing of time and to enable us to see events offstage.
Tamara Harvey’s production is nicely pacy and seeks out all the laughs. It also adds a meta gloss which is perhaps less successful since it is intermittent and undeveloped. The manservant who breaks the fourth wall when playing the piano and the later address by the main character which seems to be aimed at the audience are the key moments and, of course, the play which two of the characters fail to see is itself called The Constant Wife. There is also discussion of their own situation being like that stage in a play where everyone is happy before everything unravels; although, in fact, the unravelling occurs before the comparative happiness in this play.
As the constant wife herself, Kara Tointon is assured, amusing and wholly convincing. As her sister Martha (a composite of two characters in the original), Amy Vicary-Smith is an effective contrast, and the truthfulness of both performances ensures that they are convincing as sisters. Around these two central and well-played roles, others in the eight-strong cast engage with the necessary style with varying degrees of success. Sara Crowe (Marie-Louise in the 2002 production) is a slightly muted but appropriately regretful Mrs Culver and makes much of those humorous asides she is given. Gloria Onitiri perhaps leans a little too far into the style giving a very mannered performance, while most of the male roles are ciphers and offer little to those cast as the husbands or suitors. The exception is Philip Rham as Bentley, a deft and enjoyable characterisation, and another example of what can be made of so many servant roles in Maugham and Coward.
It all adds up to a very pleasant if undemanding evening in the theatre, well acted, deftly produced and beautifully designed, as well as being enhanced by Jamie Cullum’s jazz-inflected score. The inclusion of Cunard among the producers, and the plan to follow the long seventeen-venue UK tour with a season on board the Queen Mary 2, suggests that this well-made play is likely to be even more at home there, offering, as the programme suggests, “serious ideas in elegant, crowd-pleasing forms.”
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Chris Abbott
