If this time of year brings on pantomime cravings I’d heartily recommend the Theatre Royal. Apart from the plush carpets and Sistine Chapel-like interior, the technical marvels onstage are an entertainment in themselves. Behind a gilded proscenium arch walls lift and pivot, platforms rise complete with chairs and a whole forest of painted trees garlanded with fairy lights make a gliding descent to recreate Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Opulence is the keynote for the revival of Wycherley’s Restoration comedy, ‘The Country Wife’, fantastically designed by Paul Brown. Toby Stephens plays handsome rake-about-town Horner in twirling piratical coat, Patricia Hodge has enough of Margaret Thatcher in her portrayal of Lady Fidget to suggest a wicked stepmother and David Haig, as manically jealous husband Pinchwife, is as funny as any pantomime dame you are likely to catch this season. Principal Boy is supplied by his bumpkin wife, played for bounce by Fiona Glascott, only allowed outdoors when disguised as a youth, carrying a giant fairground rabbit and huge lollipop.

The farcical plot is ruder than your average pantomime, but the asides, double-entendres and farcical plots are familiar. The aptly named Horner (in the sense that he is a ready supplier of ‘horns’ to cuckolds) has persuaded his doctor to spread the rumour that he is 'a eunuch' following a visit to France. ‘Pox’ and 'clap' could just as easily been contracted in London, if the characters’ banter is anything to go by, but the French strain is apparently virulent enough to induce impotency. This way he not only gains access to the wives of ‘city’ men, glad to relinquish escorting duties, but he is also clued in to likely conquests by the women’s reaction to his condition. When Lady Fidget, wife of the gullible Sir Jasper, a dapper Nicholas Day, and the other two members of her ‘Virtuous Gang’, vilify him, he knows they are likely conquests as soon as he can tell them the truth. Meantime Pinchwife has brought his country bride to London but is determined to keep her away from the wits and rakes. He foolishly whets her appetite by listing the forbidden pleasures of the capital and warns her that she has already been admired at the theatre by Horner, despite being concealed among the riff-raff in the stalls. The only way her husband will allow her to venture out again, this time to Vauxhall, is disguised as her own brother, ‘Little Henry’. Needless to say, this only makes her more attractive to the voracious Horner.

Under Jonathan Kent’s brisk direction, the action switches between Horner’s lodgings and the imprisoned wife's boudoir, wallpapered respectively in Royal blue and Barbie pink. Exaggerated perspectives recall Lewis Carroll’s 'Alice in Wonderland', the comings and going akin to a lewd Mad Hatter's tea party. Witty and satirical aphorisms pepper the dialogue in an age where men competed to be considered ‘wits’. ‘It requires good breeding to become a cuckold’ says Pinchwife in ironic self-congratulation mode, or remarks on ‘the canonical smirk’ of a clergyman of doubtful provenance.

Reflecting interest in the sexual intrigues and debaucheries of the upper classes,( It was known that Charles 11’s mistress once sold oranges at the theatre) the play was for a time considered to be too ‘scurrilous’ for public performances. Critics have pointed out that the women are really only pawns in the rivalries played out by the men rather than mere targets for seduction. However, the scene where Lady Fidget emerges from Horner’s bedroom claiming she only wanted to look at his China ornaments, whilst clutching a phallic vase, or the image of Horner splayed on cushions whilst one of the women nibbles at the grapes draped over his crotch makes clear that the eroticism of illicit sexual liaisons and is what attracts audiences today as in the seventeenth century. A glorious and seasonally appropriate pantomime, then, and best of all: strictly for adults.

Great review, and I'd agree with it completely. I absolutely loved it (slight doubts about Marjorie Pinchwife, but not much else) and it was played with such cynical, urban verve. And anything which means I can admire Toby Stephens in varying amounts of dress for a couple of hours has to be a good thing.

The Man of Mode is a lesser play, though the Nationa's was more really innovate production. But The Country Wife held closer to its real Restoration origins, without getting stuck in the kind of literal faithfulness to period which makes every joke die on its feet.

Emma

Thanks, Emma. Yes, I wondered why she had to appear in that awful straw-like wig? I couldn't believe Horner would have looked at her twice.


Sheila

Yes, but I think my chief complaint was that instead of being a sweet innocent thing, she seemed to be a mental case. I liked the rabbit, though.

Emma

Yes, she definitely overdid the jumping up and down and screeching. I thought she brought northeners - well, Yorkshire-women - into disrepute.

Sheila

Yes, absolutely.

On the other hand, analysing my own reaction, given that all the performances were pretty over-the-top, it's made me wonder, though, whether we're less tolerant of over-the-top performance in the one character - the young woman - who we're used to seeing as the centre of romantic/idealised/airbrushed perfection.(????and still wish to identify with???) Men, yes, older women, yes. But not young women.

Rather like Dickens not being able to write quirky, peculiar characterful young women as he can every other category of character.

Emma

I think the director made a choice of interpretation which caused problems. As part of the town vs country theme that runs through these Restoration plays he could have presented her as an attractive innocent who soon learns the wicked ways of the town women, such as the letters trick, but who's still innocent enough to blurt out secrets if not prevented.

The director chose to infantilise her, hence the fairground-prize rabbbit and lollipop instead of man's costume which could have made more of her assets than the loose nightie and gown she wore indoors. This unterpretation fits in with her being silly enough to choose to marry Pinchwife but undermines the relationship with Horner. The latter evidently prefers experienced women. He might be tempted by an innocent beauty but not a silly dairymaid type who's made to seem plain. Fiona's Glascott's portrayal put me in mind of Jane Horrocks's androgynous 'Bubbles' in 'Abfab'. As you suggest, she seems definitely unhinged.

It's interesting to see how directorial choices affect the balance of the play.

I've been reading Michael Billingtons 'State of the Nation:British Theatre since 1945' He argues convncingly that theatre reflects society at the time, and it occurs to me that the director chose to play down the central romamce to focus on the immorality of the upper classes - striking a chord with current media toleration of debauchery and deceit in high places. That's too political for a review, though.

Sheila

Sheila