The Country Wife ***1/2

‘The Country Wife’ based on the sixteenth century play written by William Wycherley, is now showing at the Geoff Gibbs Theatre in the WA Academy of Performing Arts, Mount Lawley at 7.30 pm until Thursday 22^nd March.

This play is believed to be one of the most lewd ever written; even the title was thought to be a crude pun. It was considered so obscene that it was banned in England for 200 years.

It is the story of a randy young man, Mr Horner (Will O’Mahony), who has such a bad reputation that no women are allowed, by their husbands, to go near him. So with the help of his doctor friend, Horner spreads the rumour that he is impotent and even a eunuch. When he is considered ‘sexually safe’, the local ladies are allowed free access to his rooms, as often as they like, by the fooled husbands. However one husband, Mr Pinchwife (Mark Casamento) is not so naïve and regularly locks up his wife (Danielle Baynes), thus creating a true challenge to Horner.

This production, which has been set in a 21^st century punk era, is extremely sanitised, possibly a little too much so. The script is mainly written in the Shakespearean mode, with a few modern expressions added. Two of the characters are blatantly (but effectively) borrowed from TV, they are Bubbles from ‘Absolutely fabulous’ and the ‘Yeh but…’ schoolgirl from ‘Little Britain’. Director Chris Edmund has built on this farce aspect of the story and it works reasonably well. There were lots of asides and minor visual jokes but the pace was still a little too sluggish – especially the first several minutes, where cast seemed to have trouble conquering their rapport and delivery.

The whole production was not nearly as bawdy as one would expect from an average modern-day farce, with several opportunities being missed for belly laughs. Fielding’s ‘Tom Jones’ was a memorable, fun romp; this didn’t quite get there. In view of the fact that the actors are third year acting students, some performances were surprisingly variable.

Many congratulations to Gemma Pranita, Daniella Baynes (fabulous timing) and Mark Casamento whose energy and delivery kept the show bouncing along and to Peter Rubie for the excellent lighting.

Sorry but slightly disappointed, missed opportunities.