The Country Wife

The Country Wife

By William Wycherley

Royal Exchange Theatre, 17 September 2012

Oliver Gomm as Mr Sparkish (left) and Nick Fletcher as Mr Pinchwife in THE COUNTRY WIFE. Photo – Jonathan Keenan

This is a well-crafted production of a play that, to be absolutely frank, hasn’t aged terribly well.

Whatever the opposite of a classic might be – ‘ephemeron’ would seem to be an apt word – you have it here.

What’s it all about, then?  Well, it is set in London society and it’s about a group of young fellows, they call themselves rakes and wags and such like, who fuck other blokes’ wives for sport.  It’s a culture of cuckolding (the word recurs throughout the play), you might say.  And she’s next in the firing line, so to speak, the country wife of the title, that is.

Rather misogynistic, that’s one problem with the play: there’s the assumption that every woman wants it, is sexually available and there for the taking.  You don’t feel, either, that the author has very much experience of the world, that’s another issue.  It’s like an undergraduate fantasy.  Also, the comedy now looks rather laboured.  Overall, there’s a frivolity and inconsequence to it all.

One bright feature, however, was Oliver Gomm’s performance as Mr Sparkish, a reluctant beau.  He stole the show here, as he did also in Charley’s Aunt.  His costumes were spectacular as well.

The Country Wife is at the Royal Exchange Theatre until 20 October, further details can be found here.

Lady Windermere’s Fan

Lady Windermere’s Fan

By Oscar Wilde

Royal Exchange Theatre, 21 May 2012

Lysette Anthony as Mrs Erlynne in LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN. Photo – Jonathan Keenan.

There are a lot of much quoted lines in Wilde’s play, that much is certain, the difficulty lies in making them sound fresh and newly minted.

This production in the main achieved this, due to the excellence of the performances.  Of these, my pick would be: Lysette Anthony as Mrs. Erlynne, a compassionate femme fatale; Oliver Gomm as Cecil Graham, an impish poseur, witty but light as soufflé; Cameron Stewart as Lord Lorton, not as dull a dullard as he makes out, for he knows on what side his bread is buttered and jammed.

Taking the play in the round, it is an astute study of society’s conventions, which is to say hypocrisy.  Finding human goodness isn’t an easy matter under normal conditions, but a crisis or a scandal (as here) will reveal it soon enough.

History and heritage may present Oscar Wilde as an effete dandy, much given to precious outpourings, and maybe he would have settled for that.  The play here reveals a social observer with a cold, cold eye and a glint of ice in his heart.  He saw all, missed nothing.

 Lady Windermere’s Fan is at the Royal Exchange Theatre until 23 June, further details can be found here.

Charley’s Aunt @ the Royal Exchange Theatre

Charley’s Aunt
By Brandon Thomas
Royal Exchange Theatre, 28 June 2010

Oliver Gomm as Lord Fancourt Babberley. Photo - Jonathan Keenan

Such a play, and in such an uplifting production as this, will be rightly treasured by the granny tranny troupe and their many fans and lovers.

The play moves along at a speedy (one might almost say jildy) pace: romance, intrigue, coincidence and comedy are all to be found here, and relished and enjoyed.

Oliver Gomm, terrific as the eponymous aunt (and some Lord), gave the outstanding performance of the night: a proper rum ‘un and no mistaking it.

If a nice line in priggish, yet sometimes sycophantic and ingratiating, and always ever so slightly hypocritical guardians of young girls is to your fancy, then you’ll also enjoy Malcolm Rennie’s fine turn as Stephen Spettigue, the guardian of one or two beloveds.  He pulls it off to a T.

Not unnaturally, perhaps, the play brought to mind P.G. Wodehouse: it has the same jokey portrayal of venality, stupidity and crass conceit among the upper classes.  But I learnt after that Charley’s Aunt was premiered in 1892, a decade or so before Wodehouse wrote his first novel.  So any influence went towards the creator of Bertie Wooster.

Both Russell Dixon as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest and Oliver Gomm here have, by-the-by, performed a sterling social service.  They have shown us that granny trannies have no need to lurk in the shadows and the supermarket corridors.  No, they should be out and about (on a bus pass, no doubt) and proud.  Today Manchester, tomorrow the world!

Charley’s Aunt is at the  Royal Exchange Theatre until 7 August.  Details here.