As the always right and very honorable
Mrs. Culver in the splendid revival of W. Somerset Maugham’s
1926 drawing-room comedy “The Constant Wife” (a Roundabout
Theatre Company production at the American Airlines
Theatre), Lynn Redgrave makes two striking entrances; for
each, she wears a dramatic veil. Naturally, after a career
of stage, television, and film appearances which spans more
than forty years, Redgrave knows something about entrances,
exits, and costuming. And she uses that experience, along
with her intelligence and imagination, to superb effect
here.
When, at the start of the play, we first see Mrs. Culver,
sitting in the elegant London drawing room of her older
daughter, Constance Middleton (Kate Burton), we know
immediately who she is: a woman who is not afraid to speak
her mind, and who does so with élan. Unlike Mrs. Culver,
however, her self-righteous younger daughter, Martha (Enid
Graham), is a teller of truths of the most plebeian kind.
For instance, does Mrs. Culver know, Martha asks, that John
(Michael Cumpsty), Constance’s doctor husband of fifteen
years, is having an affair with Marie-Louise (Kathryn Meisle),
Constance’s mate for all things shopping? But Mrs. Culver
pays no mind. Before the wheels of gossip can even start
turning, she reminds Martha, “Of course, truth is an
excellent thing, but before one tells it one should be quite
sure that one does so for the advantage of the person who
hears it rather than one’s own self-satisfaction.”
Mrs. Culver is not alone in her cleverness. Constance is
her near match when it comes to keeping an ironic distance
from matters of the heart. Nevertheless, Constance’s
decision to condone l’affaire
John and Marie-Louise takes even her mother by surprise. It
has been many years since she and John were truly in love,
Constance explains. She is his wife, and he has supported
her, so why should she not support his needs? But that’s not
the end of the story—not entirely. It is Constance’s
development from wife to independent woman that gives the
play its drama, such as it is. “The Constant Wife” is Oscar
Wilde lite—“An Ideal Husband” crossed with barely digested
suffragist ideology. But no matter. Everything about this
production is such a pleasure—from Allen Moyer’s set design
and Michael Krass’s costumes to Mark Brokaw’s impeccable
direction—that the hackneyed plot and loopy logic barely
register. None of it would have worked, of course, if Brokaw
hadn’t assembled such an extraordinary cast. Burton and
Redgrave bring such verve to their work that one is reminded
of what is missing from so many of today’s performances: the
ability to play, and to enjoy it.
