The Country Wife Outing - 11 October
On Tuesday night, critics warmly welcomed the Theatre Royal Haymarket’s major new initiative – a year-long season of work under a single artistic vision in the heart of the commercial West End – and its opening production, Restoration comedy The Country Wife. And last night, Whatsonstage.com theatregoers got their chance to extend their own welcome to the team behind it.
We increased our allocation twice – to 200 tickets - to meet demand for this hugely popular event, which nevertheless sold out some time ago, generating a long waiting list of people desperate to get in.
After enjoying the show, and their free programmes and drinks in one of the Haymarket’s beautiful bars, theatregoers stayed on for our exclusive post-show Q&A. Director Jonathan Kent, the former artistic director of the Almeida Theatre who’s overseeing this inaugural season, stopped in especially for our talk, and he was joined by several members of The Country Wife cast - Patricia Hodge, David Haig, Fiona Glascott (the country wife of the title), Nicolas Day, John Hopkins, Tristan Beint and Elisabeth Dermot Walsh – all of whom were incredibly generous with their time and insights at the end of a demanding two-show day.
Amongst the fascinating topics discussed were the challenges of Restoration language and asides, the meaning of names, morality, corsets, rampant rabbits (versus squirrels), text pruning, Toby Stephens’ connection to Warren Beatty (did you know that the film Shampoo was based on The Country Wife?) and, unsurprisingly given the sexual obsessions of Wycherley’s play, lots of other pure filth. Jonathan Kent also offered a great overview of the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company and its aims – and encouraged us all to play our part in supporting it and the future of the West End.
Edited highlights of the discussion will be posted later today in the News section of the main Whatsonstage.com website here –
http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=198&types=Y
You can add your own comments about the event either here or on the main Discussion Forum. You can also post your verdict on The Country Wife to our User Reviews for the show –
http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=206&action=users&show=l02061978966
We look forward to seeing you all again soon.
- Terri Paddock, Editorial Director
October 15th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Wonderful time, many thanks. Great value for money with excellent seats and free drink. The evening was organised really well. Look forward to another soon!