Somerset Maugham wrote his original version of The Constant Wife 100 years ago when its central theme, following the unconventional response of a wife to her husband’s extramarital affair, was shockingly risqué. Laura Wade’s adaptation takes an already very witty play and transforms it into something that absolutely fizzes with sparkling dialogue.
Wade slices the linear timeline into pieces and splices them back together so that we begin a year into the story before being taken in flashback to preceding events, and then making our way back to the future, as it were. This gives the audience a sense of being ‘in on the secret’ so that we have an intimate conspiracy with Constance and her machinations to emancipate herself and create a self-sufficient lifestyle, while wreaking a cunning revenge on her husband and her best friend Marie-Louise, with whom he has been carrying on. This is supposedly in secret, but is actually in the full knowledge of Constance.
“He’s taking my wife up the West End” quips Mortimer Durham, the unsuspectingly cuckolded husband of Mary-Louise, in one of many throwaway double-entendres that pepper Wade’s glorious text, and the entire cast are so on-point in their delivery that every single witticism lands squarely on target.
Tamara Harvey, who worked with Wade on Home I’m Darling in her previous life at Theatr Clwyd prior to taking up her role at the Royal Shakespeare Company, directs with incisive drive and clarity. It is astonishing how what is essentially a 1920s drawing room comedy motors along at a rattling pace.
Kara Toynton as Constance leads a stunning cast, and it would be unfair to single out any of them, as every one is perfectly suited to their role.
Set and costumes are by Anna Fleischle and Cat Fuller, and they are a beautiful realization of period detail, immersing us in domestic art deco style. The translucent rear wall through which we see into the hallway is a visual touch that, while incidental to the plot, brings another dimension to the visual impact of the staging.
Meanwhile, Wade’s dialogue and Harvey’s direction cunningly throw us a number of moments in which the fourth wall may not exactly be broken, but certainly cracks a little, adding to that conspiratorial air between stage and audience.
The production originated on the RSC’s Swan Theatre stage in Stratford, but this tour is co-produced with Cunard, as it is destined to run onboard Queen Mary 2. It is barely possible to think of a better piece of entertainment to see in the opulence of a Cunard liner, and cruise passengers are in for a real treat.
The constant wife is two hours of absolute theatrical bliss, and it is at Liverpool Playhouse until 14th March, before continuing its tour until its run aboard Queen Mary 2 from 29th May to 5th June.
Star rating: 5 stars
Production photography by Mihaela Bodlovic
This review was originally written for publication by Good News Liverpool
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