The Constant Wife Festival Theatre Edinburgh 31st March 2026 Review
The Constant Wife is at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh this week (Tue 31 March - Sat 4 April), and surprisingly this production by The Royal Shakespeare Company of W Somerset Maugham's play, written in 1926, still has many funny moments and sharp comments about marriage and society in general.
As you would expect from any production from RSC, everything here is to a high standard, and that includes a very good set-build, one that is far more of a solid fixture than you would expect in a touring production with overall, good attention to period detailing on the interior decor, and the cast costumes evoke the time in which this play was originally set - 1927. Set design is by Anna Fleischle with co-costume design by Anna Fleischle and Cat Fuller.
The set design here is also an important factor in this story. The middle scene in Act 1 is a flashback scene to events that happened a year earlier, and cleverly the decor of this room on stage changes and a drop down new design above the fireplace tells the audience what is happening. Unfortunately, this prop did not unfold properly this evening leaving many people (including myself) wondering what was happening here. Why someone on set never just walked over to discreetly deal with this issue is still a mystery to me.
As you would also expect from RSC, all the cast here have extensive performance careers and this individual and combined stage experience is evident all through the performance. At its heart, "The Constant Wife" is a light hearted marital affair comedy, albeit with some serious topics underpinning the story, and to do this type of performance well on stage, you need a cast with perfect timing and that light comedy touch too. This cast were perfect for their respective roles.
Taking the lead roles tonight were Kara Tointon (Constance Middleton), Tim Delap (John Middleton - husband), Sara Crowe (Mrs Culver - mother of Constance), Amy Vicary-Smith – Martha Culver, sister of Constance), Gloria Onitiri (Marie-Louise Durham, best friend of Constance), Philip Rham (Bentley the butler), Alex Mugnaioni (Bernard Kersal, friend of Constance) and Jules Brown (Mortimer Durham - husband of Marie-Louise). When you have a collection of people who are this good on stage, watching them perform is always a pleasure.
In many respects though, "The Constant Wife", which in parts draws upon Somerset Maugham's own disastrous marriage to Syrie Maugham, is a window on the lives of the wealthy during the inter-war years, and it is a world of changing social values, a time when the Victorian era was finally passing to this new age. As we view this work now, 100 years on, social attitudes to many of the topics raised in this work have moved on too. Nevertheless, this is still a delightful, light-hearted piece of theatre which still has a lot to say about some aspects of society today. Some attitudes it seems have not moved on very far, if at all, in 100 years.
Review by Tom King (c) 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
As you would expect from any production from RSC, everything here is to a high standard, and that includes a very good set-build, one that is far more of a solid fixture than you would expect in a touring production with overall, good attention to period detailing on the interior decor, and the cast costumes evoke the time in which this play was originally set - 1927. Set design is by Anna Fleischle with co-costume design by Anna Fleischle and Cat Fuller.
The set design here is also an important factor in this story. The middle scene in Act 1 is a flashback scene to events that happened a year earlier, and cleverly the decor of this room on stage changes and a drop down new design above the fireplace tells the audience what is happening. Unfortunately, this prop did not unfold properly this evening leaving many people (including myself) wondering what was happening here. Why someone on set never just walked over to discreetly deal with this issue is still a mystery to me.
As you would also expect from RSC, all the cast here have extensive performance careers and this individual and combined stage experience is evident all through the performance. At its heart, "The Constant Wife" is a light hearted marital affair comedy, albeit with some serious topics underpinning the story, and to do this type of performance well on stage, you need a cast with perfect timing and that light comedy touch too. This cast were perfect for their respective roles.
Taking the lead roles tonight were Kara Tointon (Constance Middleton), Tim Delap (John Middleton - husband), Sara Crowe (Mrs Culver - mother of Constance), Amy Vicary-Smith – Martha Culver, sister of Constance), Gloria Onitiri (Marie-Louise Durham, best friend of Constance), Philip Rham (Bentley the butler), Alex Mugnaioni (Bernard Kersal, friend of Constance) and Jules Brown (Mortimer Durham - husband of Marie-Louise). When you have a collection of people who are this good on stage, watching them perform is always a pleasure.
In many respects though, "The Constant Wife", which in parts draws upon Somerset Maugham's own disastrous marriage to Syrie Maugham, is a window on the lives of the wealthy during the inter-war years, and it is a world of changing social values, a time when the Victorian era was finally passing to this new age. As we view this work now, 100 years on, social attitudes to many of the topics raised in this work have moved on too. Nevertheless, this is still a delightful, light-hearted piece of theatre which still has a lot to say about some aspects of society today. Some attitudes it seems have not moved on very far, if at all, in 100 years.
Review by Tom King (c) 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com