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| Photo taken from RSC website |
Writer- John Vanbrugh
Theatre- RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon
Running Dates- last show on September 7th
Running Time- 2 hours 40 mins plus 20 min interval
Cast- Alexandra Gilbreath, Rufus Hound, Caroline Quentin, Jonathon Slinger
Genre- Restoration Comedy
Rating- 3/5 stars
Plot
Written in 1697, this restoration comedy proved controversial at the time of its release due to its themes of marital adultery. John Vanbrugh’s typically sexually charged play deals with women’s rights, deceit, distraction and unfaithfulness – all to the backdrop of 17th century England.
Lady Brute seeks distractions from her rude, boorish and drunken husband Sir John Brute. Theirs, it seems, is a marriage of convenience: wed for sex and wealth respectively.
Secretly however, she finds solace in a dashing male suitor named Constant – seemingly the antithesis of her obnoxious and disrespectful husband.
With her niece, Belinda, the pair disguise themselves and set out on forbidden trysts with Constant and his friend Heartfree, who is courting the young Belinda.
Meanwhile, an unwitting Sir John is hauled before the courts for drunken disorder, dressed in none other than his wife’s frock!
It appears however, the pair’s infidelities are not secret to all. The vain, jealous and aptly named Lady Fancyfull has caught wind of the situation. She also vies for the affection of Heartfree – obsessed to the point of disguising herself as his wife in order to throw Belinda off the scent.
Antics come to a head when the lovers are exposed at the Brute’s home following the surprise and unexpected return of Sir John. Dismayed by the scandalous situation, and with a very real fear of being ‘cuckholded’, Sir John engages Constant in a duel of Manlihood, but soon backs off.
Will Lady Brute elope with her dashing champion and abandon her marriage, or stay with her sour husband? Surely love will triumph for a wife provoked?
Taken from RSC website
Opinions
I had never heard of The Provoked Wife before I went to see it and restoration comedies are usually a good laugh, as you would expect from the genre, but this was different to other comedies I had seen. At the time of its first performance, it was considered shocking. Going in, I was expecting a fun night, and while to some extent I did have a fun night, I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would.
Like a lot of plays from that era, it suffers from the tragedy of being overwritten. At almost three hours long, it rivals even Hamlet in length. And this is already a cut down version of the original text. It could be that since I started studying creative writing at university, I have become hyper-aware of when something is overwritten, but if I was to submit something like this for my degree, I would be told I was failing the old "show don't tell" mantra young writing students have drilled into them. Every time something happened to one of the characters, they would have a small monologue or speech about how they were feeling. It started to get a bit repetitive.
Despite this downside, the cast was a remarkably strong one. It didn't matter that at times you felt they were droning on, the performances were very good and made you want to care about the characters. The central character of the Provoked Wife, played by Alexandra Gilbreath, had a fine balance wanting revenge on her husband and not wanting to go against societal expectations of the time. She was supported by a very strong cast including Jonathon Slinger as her husband, Rufus Hound as Constant and Caroline Quentin as the mad and brilliant Lady Fancyfull. Slinger as Sir John Brute was wonderful. Even though he was horrible, you came to realise that he did care for her, he had just been going about it in the wrong way and you actually felt sorry for him. Hound as Constant was another wonderful addition to the cast. He was sweet and caring towards Lady Brute, you just wanted them to live happily ever after. Finally, Quentin as Lady Fancyfull was spectacular. This was someone who was so stuck in their own head that they believed everything they said was true. A superb performance from the whole cast.
The RSC is known for its great musical and dance moments within their plays and this was no exception. The music was used to move the story forward and were some of the most entertaining moments of the show. Paired with brilliant sets and costumes, at times you forgot you were sat in a theatre in 2019 and believed you had been transported back to the era of the play.
A solid production from the RSC, if the running time had been a bit shorter and the ending had a slightly different outcome, then it would have been rated more highly.
