The Constant Wife
Historically, a woman’s rightful place in the world was invariably with her husband; only very recently have these attitudes and social mores begun to evolve. W. Somerset Maugham’s early-20th-century play The Constant Wife is a groundbreaking treatise on what happens when a woman’s obligations to herself diverge from her wifely responsibilities, with themes and arguments that resonate to this day. In Meadow Brook Theatre’s production, director Karen Sheridan stretches social graces to the limit and poses questions of duty, fidelity, double standards, and liberation, all on the strength of comic brightness and a lead performance that dazzles.
The name on everyone’s lips is “Constance” (Cheryl Turski), an upstanding wife and mother unwittingly made the object of gossip by her philandering physician husband, John (Chip DuFord), and dear friend Marie-Louise (Leslie Ann Handelman). Not only does everyone in her family and social circle know about the ongoing infidelity, each has a distinct and justifiable opinion about the group’s collective shielding of the sunny, self-possessed, and none the wiser Constance. But a scenario that begins with philosophical rumination on whose business it is, and whether ignorance is bliss, gains comic potential with the fond return of a long-ago suitor (Stephen Blackwell). Here, in the flesh and quick to confess his unceasing love, is a tantalizing reminder that turnabout is fair play. In tension-rife interactions akin to balancing a hand over an open flame, it becomes increasingly, consistently clear that whatever she knows, by what means she discovers, or however she reacts, the ball is very much in Constance’s court.
April 14, 2013