Restoration comedy isn’t universally admired. It portrays a tiny segment of the society of its time. So much is left out — including, crucially, the sources of the protagonists’ prodigious wealth — that worthwhile modern productions need to undertake something more like excavation rather than simple research. Earlier theatrical practice was to skate on the surface of the plays, emphasising their witty dialogue, exploration of sexual hypocrisy and gender role-playing. This 1981 production was typical of its day.
The Country Wife boasts a very funny scene of extended double-entendre that wouldn’t be out of place in a Carry On film. I played in that scene, as a quack doctor who hides behind a screen, eavesdropping on the conversation, but then popping up unexpectedly to speak an aside to the audience. The moment was so perfectly chosen by author William Wycherley that the actor needs to do nothing more than appear and say the line to get a huge laugh. Very gratifying.
My colleagues were a collective treat. Marcia Warren played the title role. I used to watch her letter speech from the wings every night, because it was so funny: the more she wrote, the more she’d get erotically entangled with her writing desk until she was all but making love to it. Playing opposite her was the underrated Bill Wallis, whom I’d heard a lot on the radio, and who, once I’d moved to Bristol a few years later, I ran into quite a bit with his artist wife Karen because they lived in nearby Bath. There was also Stephen Yardley, Tom Georgeson (an excellent photographer, who took the picture on this page), James Cairncross, Victoria Wickes, Philippa Gail, Heather Baskerville, Ingrid Lacey, Peter MacQueen…all warm and friendly people. The production was directed by Anthony Cornish, who took a liking to me and was to put some nice work my way over the next couple of years…
