"The Constant Wife," Long Beach Playhouse Mainstage Theatre, Long Beach, CA, by James Scarborough
W. Somerset Maugham’s comedy The Constant Wife, directed by Phyllis Gitlin for the Long Beach Playhouse Mainstage Theatre, turns a thoroughly modern Millie into a Material Girl, makes a situation we thought was grim if not awkward into something remarkably clever, and makes us laugh at the resiliency of the institution of marriage.
Gitlin wants to laugh (we do) at the arcane nature of the British class system, at this bygone era when maids delivered calling cards to announce the arrival of guests and extramarital affairs were conducted with the decorum of a game of bridge.
Gitlin makes this a frothy comedy, milk-foam over the espresso, fast-paced, stimulating and sweet. Her tone is light-hearted and witty, her hand is light. With the pitter-patter of British dialogue, sensuous costumes, and delectable sets, the production is sensuous.
She’s got good material with which to work. Maugham’s script scintillates us with its repartee, especially between Constance (Brenda Kenworthy) and her mother Mrs. Culver (Harriet Whitmyer). Wit-wise it’s like Oscar Wilde, except that Greg Fristsche’s scrumptious sets are Edwardian and not Victorian. Hearing the dialogue is like watching verbal ping-pong played in flapper dresses.
The story doesn’t pound home a moral or a lesson. The walkaway message is more the advice you’d get from a talk show radio host than from some hard life lesson learned. W. Somserset Maugham as Dr. Laura? Why not?
The story revolves around Constance, wife of Dr. John Middleton (Jack Millis). It should revolve around her for Kenworthy plays her perky and with panache.
It seems that everyone except Constance knows – or so we think - that John has been canoodling with her best friend Marie-Louise Durham (Elizabeth M. Desloge). Constance’s posse gathers to figure out the best way to inform her of this indelicate matter.
The responses of the gathered kith and kin reveal a full ambit of responses to the matter. Her mother, exquisitely portrayed by Whitmyer (imagine an exclamation point sprawled out on a sofa) says to let men (the scoundrels) remain true to their errant natures, and women (constant) to theirs.
There’s Martha, Brenda’s sister, played sweetly and most effectively with I-know-something-you-don’t-know (watch her slow burns as she skulks off to the side) by Stacey Marron, who wishes eternal damnation on the philanderer.
To complicate matters, Bernard Kersal, made hound dog loyal and endearing by Kevin Deegan, Constance’s old flame, reappears with yet another declaration of eternal love.
And Mortimer Durham, admirably played by Rusty Vance, husband of floozy Marie-Louise, is about to open a can of whoop-ass but instead gets mollified by Constance who takes a route that is at first curious and circuitous but then, as she explains to the started throng what she knew and intends to do about it, sounds more and more like a cross between Donna Reed and Donna Summer.
Performances are 8 pm, Fri. & Sat, 2 pm, Sun. The show runs until Mar 22. Tickets are $22. The Playhouse is located at 5021 E. Anaheim St. For more information call 494-1014 or visit www.lbph.com.
