A classic comedy of manners with a fresh adaptation is entertaining audiences at York Theatre Royal this week.
Adapted by Olivier Award-winner Laura Wade (Home, I’m Darling; TV’s Rivals) from Somerset Maugham’s 1920s comedy of manners, The Constant Wife is a story of infidelity, ingenuity and a woman’s gain of independence.
The Constant Wife is at York Theatre Royal from Monday 26 to Saturday 31 January.
This new production is directed by Tamara Harvey, the co-Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company with original music composed by jazz vocalist and pianist Jamie Cullum.
Constance is the perfect wife and mother, and her husband is as devoted to her as he is to his mistress, who just happens to be her best friend.
Kara Tointon, as our constant wife Constance, is wonderful. She radiates as soon as she steps onto the stage, like a fresh summer breeze, and we are immediately and gladly swept away with her. Tointon floats between comedy and pathos with ease – delivering quietly cutting one-liners and a believable weight behind the inescapable outbursts of emotion.
It’s an incredibly controlled performance, though it’s less a play about control, and more one of independence. Constance gains her financial independence from her husband through working at her sister’s interior design business – a decision her mother highly disapproves of – though it wouldn’t be until 1975 that a woman could open a bank account in her own name in the UK.
Not only is Constance at the centre of the story, but she’s literally placed centre stage almost at all times, with the play’s characters surrounding her in her orbit, where she is repeatedly underestimated.
It’s a careful choice by director Tamara Harvey about where characters are placed on stage; Constance’s mother, Mrs Culver, (portrayed by understudy Jane Lambert at this performance) and sister Martha (Amy Vicary-Smith) are constantly on opposing sides of the stage as they bicker over the role a woman must play as a wife, and therefore in life.
Characters create physical space between each other the further they feel from them emotionally, and even the set (Anna Fleischle) is full of rigid lines and boxes, determined to keep them apart and set in their assigned roles in society.
Speaking of the set, Anna Fleischle has done a fantastic job. There’s a magical moment when we flashback to a year earlier and the set transforms in front of our eyes. The costume design (co-designed by Fleischle and Cat Fuller) is another highlight – bright block colours in luscious layers capture the style of the era, without leaning into the predictable. I loved the scenes where Martha is in red, Constance in muted yellow, and Marie-Louise in green – a traffic-light tableau with Constance again in the middle, as our representation of the power of simply waiting.
Two scene-stealing performances for me were Philip Rham as butler Bentley and Gloria Ontiri as the other woman, Marie-Louise. Bentley and Constance share an endearing camaraderie, and are perhaps the only two characters who truly see each other – and there’s a poignant moment where Bentley reveals his own hidden relationship. If Bentley’s mannerisms are understated, Marie-Louise could not be more opposite. Gloria Ontiri is truly glorious in this role and throws herself, literally, into it wholeheartedly. Her dramatic exclamations and collapsing onto the piano and other surfaces are extremely fun to watch.
The genius of this play, and particularly this adaptation, is that it showcases these deeper feminist themes in a script that is genuinely funny and full of wit. The meta nods added in by Laura Wade don’t feel a hair out of place, and never once like a gimmick.
I have a feeling this play may have been a bit more scandalous for audiences in 1926 when it was first published, however it still provokes thoughts in our modern era and how far attitudes towards women and men, and the double standards there, have truly changed or whether it’s just constant.
The Constant Wife is at York Theatre Royal until Saturday 31 January. Tickets start from £15 and are available online here.
