BWW Reviews: THE PROVOKED WIFE, Greenwich Playhouse, October 14 2011

It is a testament to the ambition of Perfect Mayhem and Greenwich Playhouse that Joss Bennathan's inspired decision to set a 300-year-old play 90 years ago is so triumphantly realised. Everyone looks great - three piece suits for the men and cloche hats, flapper dresses and Louise Brooks bobs for the women. Placing the action in a world familiar from Jeeves and Wooster and the wit and wordplay of the Algonquin Round Table, also provides a hook on which to hang the sparkling script's sour and sassy exchanges.

Sir John Brute married for lust and now loudly regrets it (think Al Bundy with a fighty streak). Lady Brute is not quite resigned to her fate and, egged on by niece Belinda, takes time out from going toe-to-toe with her husband in the verbal violence to give some hopes to Constant, who has pursued her, well, constantly, since her ill-fated match two years earlier. Constant's will is stiffened by Heartfree, whose antipathy to the institution of marriage soon crumbles before his match in language and duplicity - the Lady's niece, Belinda. But Heartfree's steps are tracked by Lady Fanciful and her loyal French servant Mademoiselle, who live for the gossip fuelled by scandal and hide in the bushes like long-lens paparazzi to get their fix. 

The cast are consistently excellent with John Dorney's slowly revealed vulnerability eliciting sympathy for his brutal Sir John, Laura Corbett coquettishly cuckolding him with charms to burn, Jamie Hutchins convincingly lovelorn as Constant and Joan Walker and Provence Mayhew vampishly vacuous as the mayhem-sowing Fanciful and Madamoiselle. The standouts are Sam Nicholl and Fleur Shepherd, whose initially cynical motives melt under the spell of love, as Heartfree and Belinda flirt and plot with faultless comic timing. The 100 minutes of bitching, boozing and betrothing flies by and vindicates the bold decision to run straight through with no interval.

Londoners really are fortunate to have such theatre as this under their noses, miles from the bright lights of the West End, drawing on drama's rich history to provide a play that entertains its audience every bit as much today as it did 314 years ago. 

 

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