The Country Wife

The DalTheatre end-of-year show is traditionally a sumptuous showcase of costumes, sets and actors, and this year?s production of William Wycherley?s The Country Wife is no exception. The costumes are lavish and lovely. The set is simple, effective and shows a great attention to detail. The actors do an amazing job with Wycherley?s dense, innuendo-filled text. This is a very bawdy play, as befitted the sexually carefree times of the restoration. The gist is that a predatory male named Mr. Horner feigns impotence to be allowed access to the normally guarded and very buxom wives. I found the basic premise that most women are slightly dim nymphomaniacs and most husbands are akin to jailers a little disturbing and I found the three-hour run time al little bum-numbing, but neither complaint can be blamed on the excellent cast and crew of this production.