Happiness is the best revenge, or so the saying goes and Somerset Maug-ham's comedy The Constant Wife proves it without a shadow of a doubt.
This classic, and classy, 1920's drawing room farce has some witty if cynical comments to make on the conventions not just of marriage, but of infidelity too.
TV and stage actress Liza Goddard brings the dangerously clever and always charming wife Constance Middleton very much to life, delivering Maugham's razor sharp wit as if it were her own.
Her husband, played by Robert East, is having an affair with her best friend. But smiling Constance doesn't seem concerned and even defends her cheating husband and his lover when the affair is finally out in the open.
Not for Constance the conventional role of pitied, weeping wife. She has other plans - a very effective and highly entertaining way of getting her own back. Revenge, when it comes, is sweet and utterly devastating. Not too many wronged wives handle things as coolly as Cons-tance.
Actress Natalie Walter is suitably despicable as the traitorous best friend and the well-known actress Susan Penhaligon is unrecognisable as a wonderfully dowdy and charmless sister.
Robert East is just perfect as the not-as-clever-as-he-thought husband, on whom the tables are well and truly turned.
The original 1927 production of Maugham's play was a modern comedy about modern people. This 2004 revival, straight from London's West End, may be classic, period farce now but it's still bang up to date. Philandering husbands be warned.
Sue Vickers
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article