The Constant Wife is the name of a play, or, to be more accurate, it is the name of two plays. The first is the one the audience bought tickets for at the Grand Theatre and the second is the fictional drama which was the intended destination for a night out, enabling Constance Middleton (Kara Tointon), the constant wife we saw on stage, and Bernard Kersal (Alex Mugnaioni), an old flame of hers from when she was single, to spend an evening catching up after he had spent the last fifteen years in Japan. Confused? Me too.
The version we saw was written by Laura Wade, based on a 1926 comedy by W Somerset Maugham. There was no plot as the piece was a situation rather than a story, using the interplay between the characters to examine moral values as they were interpreted by the well-to-do a hundred years ago.
Philip Rham as Bentley testing the old Joanna.
The play began in a novel way with the curtain already raised, exposing the set, a drawing room in a large London house. Without warning, the houselights still being fully illuminated, Bentley (Philip Rham), the servant, walked across the stage and began to play the piano. After a few bars, which seemed to satisfy him that the instrument was in tune, he gave an approving nod, stood up from the piano stool and walked off, at which point the auditorium was plunged into darkness and the show began.
Alex Mugnaioni as Bernard Kersal and Amy Vicary-Smith, Martha Culver
The aforementioned Constance Middleton was a wife who seemed to have everything, but was still not happy, much to the surprise of her mother, Mrs Culver (Sara Crowe), who said “she eats well, sleeps well, dresses well and she’s losing weight. No woman can be unhappy in those circumstances.” What mum didn’t know was that Constance’s husband, John (Tim Delap), had been having a long-term affair with her best friend, Marie-Louise Durham (Gloria Onitiri) and, unnoticed, had caught them in the throes of passion. The incident was made public when Mortimer Durham (Jules Brown), Marie-Louise’s husband, announced to the other characters, his suspicion of the shenanigans after finding John’s cigarette case in their bedroom. Constance invented a story about being in the bedroom chatting with her bestie and it was she who had lost it. This caused him to apologise and head off to buy his wife an extremely expensive pearl neckless to compensate.
Left to right: Amy Vicary-Smith as Martha Culver, Gloria Onitiri as Marie-Louise Durham, Kara Tointon, Constance Middleton and Sara Crowe, Mrs Culver.
Constance’s sister, Martha Culver (Amy Vicary-Smith), although single, was full of advice as to how to handle the situation but she had not reckoned with the thinking behind the false alibi. The irony was, that once the affair had been disclosed, it abruptly ended, the attraction seemingly being the excitement of the subterfuge. John admitted to his wife that it was she who he loved and was sorry for the hurt he had inflicted. Constance, however, didn’t seem to factor love into a marriage, being more concerned about gaining her freedom, not from John per se, but in general. To this end, she joined forces with Martha and started an interior design business which did very well.
Jules Brown as Mortimer Durham
The denouement came with Constance deciding to spend some of her substantial earnings by paying John a sum for board and lodgings so as to keep the marriage on a commercial basis, thus freeing her from dependency on him, and arranging to go on holiday to Italy for three weeks. In order to twist the knife she told him that she would be going with Bernard Kersal, who had made no secret to everyone that he was still in love with her. In fact, Bernard was returning to Japan on the day that Constance was heading to Italy but, when he called to say goodbye to her and John, the conversation was manipulated by her to make it sound as though her story was valid.
Hell hath no fury……!
The happy couple. Tim Delap as John Middleton and Kara Tointon as Constance
Although the play was a ‘reimagining’, the dialogue and delivery were executed in the style of the period, so the words were semi-shouted rather than spoken naturally. Sadly, however, this didn’t make Sara Crowe audible for a lot of the time. The dialogue was very clever, being both sophisticated and witty, which came as a great relief as, on looking at the production images and the trailer on the RSC website, I feared it would be a farce. My favourite line was from Constance when Bernard had called to pick her up for the theatre, somewhere they failed to get to because of the various revelations made as they were preparing to leave. As she left the room to get changed into her glad rags she turned to Bernard and said “I will be a fast as I can, but not as quick as you would like me to be.” We chaps have all been there!
I must say a word about the set, which, in addition to being period specific in the furniture department, changed from one room to another using a system of pulleys revealing cupboards and display units on the walls with hardly a break in the proceedings. When the process was completed, a wall hanging was lowered bearing the words ‘One Year Later’. Well done Anna Fleischle, who, as well as the set, also designed the magnificent costumes with Cat Fuller.
Should you fancy climbing into the Time Machine and sticking it in reverse for a century, this is for you.
The Constant Wife is a Royal Shakespeare Company production, directed by Tamara Harvey and runs at Leeds Grand Theatre until 18th April. For details and booking please see https://leedsheritagetheatres.com/whats-on/the-constant-wife-2026/
For more details of Royal Shakespeare Company go to https://www.rsc.org.uk/ and for Leeds Heritage Theatre news it is https://leedsheritagetheatres.com/whats-on/?genre=live
I never dreamt that I would write this but, after the play ends its UK tour next month, it is being performed on the transatlantic voyage of Cunard’s liner, Queen Mary 2! I must get some seasick tablets as I am sure my press ticket for that will arrive any day now.
Photographs by Mihaela Bodlovic
Tyke It To The Limit 