
โI have always liked Somerset Maugham and have read his novels, for which he is better known โ โThe Moon and Sixpenceโ, โOf Human Bondageโ and so on. โThe Constant Wifeโ is a strong play for women and with good parts.
โThere are always more women than men available in amateur drama,โ is the practical observation made โalthough we have often done plays that are male dominated in character. There are more of them written.โ
For this upper middle class tale of a comfortably got wife entering the work place as part of a strategic, subversive quest, the Kerryman has gathered around his Torch ensemble. Joanne OโBrien is the principal Constance Middelton; Antoinette Portley, her mother Mrs Culver; Katie Dowling is sister Martha and the faithless best friend Marie Louise is played by Miriam Ball. Dan Mooney is Dr Middleton, spouse and patronising Harley Street doctor. On then to Peter Hayes, a jealous Mortimer married to Marie Louise.
There are nine on stage in all, playing out arch or innocent and gossipy lives in Edwardian drawing rooms.
โWe started reading in October and rehearsals began the week before Christmas. While itโs a polished British comedy of manners set in the 1920s, this is also a feminist play although it presents as somewhat antifeminist at the beginningโ.
Look back to the times in which Maugham was writing, after the tumultuous fight for suffrage, the deaths, threats, marches, rebellion and oppression. He had his own battle with homosexuality in a forbidden, despised era.
โThe central tension is about this affair Constanceโs husband is having with Marie Louise. Itโs a witty, upbeat play,โ he smiles. Thereโs a hint that the cool, kind wife maybe anything other than a gulled mug for her husband.
Anticipate a finely costumed production, wit and wits clashing and an exit plan of commanding indulgence for particulars concerned. And unconcerned.
Book on www.limetreetheatre.ie for Belltable.