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Nancy Robinette (left), with Todd Scofield as Waitwell, is a scene stealer as the self-absorbed society matron Mrs. Wishfort. |
By LUCIA ANDERSON
FOR THE FREE LANCE-STAR
When Millamant sets forth the limits she will tolerate on her independence after marriage, she is raising the feminist torch for the women of 1700--the year William Congreve's "The Way of the World" was first produced.
Why, she wants to be able to write letters to whomever she pleases without her husband's supervision! To choose her own clothes and sleep as late in the morning as she wants. Rank insubordination!
The witty back-and-forth between Millamant and her intended, Mirabell, is only a small part of the enjoyment afforded by this Restoration comedy. Congreve, writing almost a full century after William Shakespeare, had both the discernment to spot the absurdities of his society and the skill to satirize them.
One's reputation in that era was paramount--it didn't matter how many commandments you broke, so long as nobody knew for sure what you were doing.
Part of the fun was spreading gossip about everybody else.
And in order to maintain one's place as a respectable member of society, one needed money. Lots of it. But one couldn't actually earn money. One inherited it, or married it. And wasn't there plenty of scheming that went on over those possibilities!
Congreve assembled a fine group of characters--many of them connected to each other by convoluted family ties--to skewer the current mores for his audiences' amusement.
Besides Millamant and Mirabell, there's Lady Wishfort, an aging society matron. She's Millamant's aunt and has the power to withhold half the girl's fortune if she marries against her aunt's wishes. And Lady Wishfort does not want her to marry Mirabell.
Then there's Lady Wishfort's daughter, Mrs. Fainall, unhappily married to a schemer who is not above blackmail and bullying to gain control of his mother-in-law's fortune. He's also involved in an adulterous affair with Mrs. Marwood, who actually loves Mirabell.
Lady Wishfort is also aunt to Sir Willful Witwoud, a rustic gallant and half brother to the dazzling fop Anthony Witwoud.
Michael Kahn, the Shakespeare Theatre Company's artistic director, has directed this effervescent concoction with a sure hand. Lightness is essential in such an airy endeavor, and Kahn keeps things moving briskly.
He also hired some topnotch actors to keep the balls in the air.
Veanne Cox and Christopher Innvar hold center stage as Millamant and Mirabell. The pair continue to demonstrate the facility with 18th-century comedy they displayed in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of "The Beaux' Stratagem" in 2006.
Millamant is not entirely a sympathetic character, having the temperament of a weather vane and a sharp tongue with it, but Cox makes the most of her wit and her helpless attraction for Mirabell.
That one isn't a faultless hero, either, full of conniving ways and with a history of infidelities--but, again, Innvar makes him a likeable chap, ready to protect the womenfolk from rapacious adventurers.
The lovers are almost eclipsed by the clowns, however. Nancy Robinette is right over the top as the self-absorbed Lady Wishfort, and Floyd King is hilarious as the foppish Witwoud. Those two are worth the price of admission alone.
With solid performances from the rest of the cast, "The Way of the World" froths merrily to its happily-ever-after conclusion.
Visually, the production is less satisfactory. One could wish Jane Greenwood had been a tiny bit more restrained in her costume design. The provided background material says she chose green for all the costumes because of the play's focus on money.
Who knew there were so many ugly shades of green?
The silly women's headdresses are distracting in the extreme, and the men's wigs looked as if they had never seen a brush or comb.
But the two fops and Lady Wishfort are a riot.
Wilson Chin's set design is OK, with an ingenious little coffeehouse for the first act, but his lollipop tree and shrubs in the park scene look like the illustrations from a minimalist children's book.
Those limitations notwithstanding, "The Way of the World" is a delightfully witty way to spend an evening.
Lucia Anderson is a freelance writer living in Woodbridge.
| What: 'The Way of the World' Where: The Shakespeare Theatre Company's Lansburgh Theatre, 450 Seventh St. N.W., Washington When: Through Nov. 16 Tickets: $23.50-$79.75 Info: 202/547-1122; shakespearetheatre.org |
