The Country Wife Program

The Country Wife

By William Wycherley

Directed by Tom Dugdale and E.J. Westlake

The performance runs two and a half hours with a 15-minute intermission.

Cast

Horner
J.T. Baniak

Dorilant
Madeline Kritzell

Harcourt
Hayden Beatty

Sir Jasper
Shea Chandler

Lady Fidget
Varsha Babu

Dainty Fidget
Shardai'Ja Mumford

Miss Squeamish
Madeline Watson

Old Lady Squeamish
Robin Phillips

Marjorie
Lydia Beyer

Mr. Pinchwife
Peyton Drake

Alithea
Tyla Daniel

Sparkish
Alex Rito

Lucy
Grace McIlroy

Quack
Nil Sena Kocaoglu

The use of any recording device, either audio or video, and the taking of photographs, either with or without flash, is strictly prohibited. Please silence your cell phones and pagers prior to the beginning of the performance. In consideration of those seated around you, please refrain from texting during the performance.

Varsha Babu (Lady Fidget), junior
Hometown: Knoxville, TN
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: debut

J.T. Baniak (Horner), 1st year student
Hometown: Lexington, KY
Major(s): computer science and engineering
Department Productions: debut

Hayden Beatty (Harcourt), senior
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
Major(s): materials science and engineering; physics
Minor(s): theatre
Department Productions: debut

Lydia Beyer (Margery Pinchwife), senior
Hometown: Dayton, OH
Major(s): theatre
Minor(s): creative writing; screenwriting
Department Productions: Violet

Shea Chandler (Sir Jasper), junior
Hometown: Orrville, OH
Major(s): political science; theatre
Department Productions: debut

Tyla Daniel (Alithea), senior
Hometown: Columbus, OH
Major(s): communications; theatre
Department Productions: Bonnets (How Ladies of Good Breeding Are Induced to Murder); Sweat

Peyton Drake (Mr. Pinchwife), senior
Hometown: St. Clairsville, OH
Major(s): theatre
Minor(s): history
Department Productions: The Seagull

Jo Fuller (costume designer), graduate student
Hometown: Elgin, SC
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: Violet

Jessica Lynn Hightower (scene designer), graduate student
Hometown: Seabrook, TX
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: The Seagull; Sweat

Nil Sena Kocaoglu (Quack), junior
Hometown: Madeira, OH
Major(s): theatre
Minor(s): English literature; history
Department Productions: debut

Madeline Kritzell (Dorilant), junior
Hometown: Wadsworth, OH
Major(s): neuroscience
Minor(s): theatre
Department Productions: debut

Grace McIlroy (Lucy), sophomore
Hometown: Twinsburg, OH
Major(s): theatre
Minor(s): musical theatre
Department Productions: debut

Shardai'Ja Mumford (Dainty Fidget), senior
Hometown: Canton, OH
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: Violet

Robin Phillips (Old Lady Squeamish), junior
Hometown: Dublin, OH
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: debut

Alex Rito (Sparkish), senior
Hometown: North Royalton, OH
Major(s): political science; theatre
Department Productions: debut

Gabriela Trigo-McIntyre (dramaturg), graduate student
Hometown: Columbus, OH
Major(s): theatre
Department Productions: 1st department production

Madeline Watson (Miss Squeamish), sophomore
Hometown: Columbus, OH
Major(s): linguistics; theatre
Minor(s): musical theatre
Department Productions: Violet

Fops, wits, coquettes—oh my!

A frenzied spectacle of cutting wit, social masks and raunchy jokes: The Country Wife by William Wycherley exemplifies the 17th Century comedy of manners. Mirrors of their time, such Restoration plays reflect the extreme cultural shift that accompanied the reinstatement of the monarchy in 1660 with the rise of the lifelong party boy himself, Charles II. The mid-17th Century had been fraught for both England and the theatre. Between the English Civil War and the Commonwealth led by Oliver Cromwell, the strict Puritanical mores had more or less shuttered the theaters of London as hotbeds of sin and sinfulness—all in the name of the public good. In response to these moral and cultural restrictions, the restored Charles II unleashed upon London a torrent of French styles of art, theatre, and decorum, as well as an attitude of unabashed and permissive indulgence veiled under a brittle veneer of courtly manners. Suddenly, to delight in the pleasures of socializing, imbibing, intrigue, and sex scandals was not only acceptable, but encouraged . . . so long as one played their prescribed part correctly. Like a 1980s John Hughes movie, once the Puritan parents were out of town for the weekend, the Restoration’s party really got going.

Highlighting the artifice, superficiality, and hypocrisy of society’s upper crust, the humor in comedies like The Country Wife stemmed from the marriage of dramatic form and societal self-reflection: characters were archetypes, words were swords, and decorum armor. Stock characters such as the rake (witty, handsome, womanizing), the fop (thinks he’s witty but he’s not), and the coquette (flirtatious, manipulative) were familiar to the Restoration audience. Rather than focus on the modern preoccupation of psychological realism (a notion that did not even exist until the late 19th Century), The Country Wife mirrored the lavish and decadent lives of the aristocracy in part because Wycherley was one of them. Through intricate wordplay packed with wit and irreverent double entendre, not to mention situations that highlighted the very distinct difference in behaviors that occurred between the public and private spheres, Wycherley invited his aristocratic counterparts to laugh at and with their own reflections.

Going to the theatre in the late 17th Century was a social event, where seeing and being seen was as important as watching the play. Noblewomen who went to the theater as audience members would often wear vizard-masks—round, black masks that obscured their faces in an attempt to perform public modesty, while also ensuring anonymity during more private pursuits. Aristocrats could buy seats on the stage itself not only to be closer to the action, but also to be seen (and admired) by the rest of the audience. And because the entire theatre, audience, and stage were well-lit with candles, everyone was on display. Although the seating reflected the social structure of the time, with the gallery seats primarily for richer patrons, a wide range of people from lower social classes could come and watch in the standing-room-only pit. Whereas the aristocrats would delight in seeing their wit and manners reflected back to them in the plays they saw, the lower-class spectators would devour the clownish and hypocritical behavior portrayed by the represented upper-class and delight in the savvy irreverence of the servant characters—there was something for everyone!

However, the true revolution of Restoration theatre was the never-before-seen inclusion of women performers on the stage. This is when the actress was born. Among the most celebrated, both famous and scandalous, was Nell Gwyn, mistress (one of many) to Charles II. Nell’s humble beginnings as an orange girl in the pit of the theatre (basically the popcorn-sellers of the time) prefaced her meteoric rise to fame. Roll over, Elizabeth Taylor; step aside, Nicole Kidman—Nell Gwyn (and Elizabeth Barry and Anne Bracegirdle and many others) were the OG superstars! Unsurprisingly, however, this historic inclusion elicited a massive misogynistic backlash towards women actors that linked the artistic profession with prostitution in public memory for subsequent centuries.

Not everything was fun and carefree. Under the glittering surface, political and religious tensions abounded, issues of class were beginning to bubble, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was growing, and the gender norms of the times were nothing if not suffocating. Therefore, in our production, while we strive to delight in the wit of the language and humor, we also want to acknowledge, and hopefully spark conversation around, the deplorable norms birthed by social structures rife with injustice. Even more than 300 years later, the play’s 17th Century mirror, though now full of metaphorical cobwebs and worn with age, still reflects glimpses of our own problematic reality back to us, including behaviors of toxic masculinity, misogyny, classism, and racism. Therefore, rather than setting it in 1675 when the play was originally performed, we begin our production with a visually recognizable pop-culture nod to the Regency Era of the Netflix phenomenon Bridgerton. Throughout the play, temporal boundaries blur and fray, and fragments of the past and the present merge and intertwine, until we are left with feelings and fragments of familiar timelessness that beg the question: who are we now beneath our social masks and what do we see in our own reflection?

Support Ohio State Theatre

The Country Wife Program

The Country Wife Program

The Country Wife

By William Wycherley

Directed by Tom Dugdale and E.J. Westlake

Cast

PRODUCTION TEAM

PRODUCTION CREW

STUDENT CAST & PRODUCTION TEAM BIOGRAPHIES

DRAMATURG'S NOTE

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT PRODUCTIONS

FINAL PRODUCTION IN THURBER THEATRE