Sunday, April 5

Tag: Kara Tointon

The Constant Wife – Festival Theatre
Scotland

The Constant Wife – Festival Theatre

On its opening night at the Festival Theatre, The Constant Wife felt less like a revival and more like a reminder of just how ahead of its time W. Somerset Maugham really was. Written in 1926, the play sits neatly in the world of drawing-room comedy, but beneath the polished dialogue and social niceties there is something far more unsettling. It asks what happens when a woman refuses to react in the way society expects. That tension is at the centre of this new version by Laura Wade, directed by Tamara Harvey for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Wade keeps the 1920s setting but softly reshapes the structure, bringing moments forward and adding a flashback that shows Constance discovering her husband’s affair. It is a small change, but an important one. It shifts her from someone who seems...
The Constant Wife – Liverpool Playhouse
North West

The Constant Wife – Liverpool Playhouse

Take a step back into the 1920s with the Constant Wife which is based on the original play by W. Somerset Maugham and has been creatively adapted and revived by award winning Laura Wade and directed by Tamara Harvey. Despite being written nearly a century ago, Wade has beautifully written the play to maintain its original class, themes and sophistication; however, the play still feels surprisingly modern. An exploration of marriage, independence, and social hypocrisy. Meet Constance Middleton (Kara Tointon), well kept, organised, controlled, poised and who glides around stage with grace. The perfect wife and mother. However, all is not what it seems. Be prepared for a brilliant and comedic tale filled with surprise, wit, laughter, intrigue and an array of characters with wonderfully con...
The Windsors Endgame – Prince of Wales Theatre
London

The Windsors Endgame – Prince of Wales Theatre

To try and summarise just how outlandish The Windsors is as a stage show, imagine if the writers of Spitting Image found a file labelled ‘Daily Mail Royal Fan-fic’ and gave it to the editors of Viz magazine, after getting them spectacularly drunk and sitting through a marathon of ‘Carry On’ movies. Based on the satirical Channel 4 show, by Bert Tyler-Moore and the late George Jeffrie, and featuring many of the show’s original cast, The Windsors imagines a world where the Queen, weary of public life after the death of her beloved Phillip, has abdicated in favour of the world’s longest-serving intern, Prince Charles. Charles - played by Harry Enfield with the perfect sense of tired pompousness that one would expect from someone waiting 70 years for a work promotion – promptly goes powe...