BBC on Line By Mark Young Do you fancy a trip back to the fashionable London of Restoration England where wealthy young gentlemen drank in "chocolate houses" while trading gossip? If the answer is yes, the Oxford Theatre Guild's production of William Congreve's "The Way of the World" offers a perfect opportunity. Theatres during the reign of Charles II were filled with new audiences demanding a fresh style of performance and Congreve duly gave them the most celebrated example of "Restoration Comedy", an early attempt at a more intellectual style of humour. When Congreve penned "The Way of the World" in 1700 the majority of London's Elizabethan theatres has closed and with them went the boy actors as women were now allowed to play female roles. Director, Polly Mountain, has stamped her authority on this new production with some inspired direction, as although Congreve's prose is superbly crafted, the discourse and plot require skilful interpretation to appeal to a 21st century audience. Having navigated our way through a minefield of gossip, intrigue and love versus duty, the play comes to life with the interaction between Barbara Denton's Lady Wishfort and Cathy Oakes' Foible. I was reminded of Liz Taylor's performance in the film of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe" as her ladyship cries out "go you thing" to her servant whilst clutching a bottle of cherry brandy! Yes you guessed it, class and social tensions are highlighted throughout and in particular when the rough country squire played by Peter Mottley arrives in trendy London. I must also mention Jason Tomes who gives the character of Mr Petulant considerable edge exclaiming "if throats are to be cut, let swords clash". I won't spoil it by telling you if throats are cut over the heroine Millimant played by feisty student Tegan Shohet. Simon Vail's Mr Witwoud was also well portrayed if occasionally drawing on the camp humour of John Inman and Julian Clary. Congreve was described as a master of illustrating feminine psychology but sadly the reaction to this play's morality made it his last. He went on to suffer the irony of being killed by a carriage while in the post of "Commissioner for Licensing Hackney Carriages"! Review Daily Info Oxford. William Congreve was so disheartened by the critical reception of The Way of the World when it opened in Lincoln's Inn Fields that he reputedly told the audience members to save their disapproval as he meant to write no more. Good to his word, Congreve lived out the rest of his life (he was in his early 30s when he penned his final play) in various government sinecures until his death in 1729. The fortunes of The Way of the World have steadily climbed since then, and is now acknowledged as one of the finest Restoration dramas of the age. It is also Congreve's most popular revival play, and with good reason; with brilliant wit and finely wrought language, the play offers a memorable cast of rakes, fops, self-regarding fools and catty women, and all within a comic plot so well crafted it must have made Oscar Wilde green with envy. The intricacies of the plot require close attention at times, but armed with a basic overview of the story - an intense perusal of the programme notes five minutes before the play starts ought to do it - you are very quickly absorbed in the sheer momentum of the dialogue. Our protagonist, Edward Mirabell, longs to wed the beautiful Millimant, but first has to contend with the aversion of her aunt, the vainglorious Lady Wishfort. Mirabell's scheme is already under way by the opening scene, where we glimpse the first stage of his plot to foil Lady Wishfort and gain both the hand of her niece in marriage and her share of the Aunt's estate into the bargain. The scheme hinges on convincing the aging Lady Wishfort to marry "Sir Rowland", an outwardly gallant peer who is in truth Mirabell's faithful servant Waitwell, and then using the threatened scandal of this situation to force Lady Wishford's hand. However, the plot is discovered by the spiteful Mrs Marwood, who turns events to her own advantage and settles old scores with her rivals at the same time. The Oxford Theatre Guild has mounted a wonderful production of Congreve's play, replete with fabulous costumes and fine acting performances from the cast. It is worth the price of an admission just to see the hilariously bitchy exchanges between Marwood (Juliet Humphrey) and her rivalrous "friends", with their flashing eyes and silk fans quivering like the warning plumage of some exotic bird. Millimant, arrestingly played by Tegan Shohet, tempers her coquetry with an underlying warmth of feeling, and Oliver Baird turns in a good performance as the handsome Mirabell, by turns rakish and petulant, but always charismatic. But the highlight of the show has to be Barbara Denton's superb Lady Wishfort, in a performance that has the audience laughing out loud throughout the final three Acts. The Way of the World is a play that loses none of its original bite before a modern audience; the way of the world in Congreve's time is still the way now, with the same insecurities, posturings, romantic intrigues and town-country class tensions so cuttingly observed in Congreve's play. If you don't believe me, go see it for yourself. JUSTIN BEPLATE, 14.04.2004 OXFORD TIMES Oxford Theatre Guild rise to the challenge of The way of the World, says PAULA CLIFFORD William Congreve’s The way of the World, first performed in 1700, is regarded by some as the height of Restoration Comedy, despite its convoluted, and ultimately pointless plot, and long stretches of dialogue which, though littered with bons mots, are often symptomatic of a rather literary verbal diarrhoea. A challenge, then, for any company, but one to which the Oxford Theatre Guild, under Pollly Mountain’s lively direction, rises admirably. The strength of the play – and this production – lies in the interaction between characters. The two most outlandish of them are among the most effective pairings. These are the courtly hangers-on, Petulant (Jason Tomes) and Witwoud (Simon Vail), with their painted faces elaborate clothes and a fine line in repartee. At the heart of the action is the widowed Lady Wishfort, beautifully played by Barbara Denton. She longs for a new husband but is not duped for long by the imposter she is presented with. Like Patricia Routledge’s Hyacinth Bucket, Lady Wishfort’s fine words are undermined by her comically clumsy actions. And her attempt to demonstrate that there is "nothing more alluring than a levée from a couch" predictably and delightfully comes to grief. The leading lady Lady Wishfort’s niece Millamant, is skilfully played by a new-comer to the Oxford Theatre Guild, Tegan Shohet. She is courted and eventually won by Mirabell (Oliver Baird), who somewat inexplicably, seems to have been the object of the affections of almost all the ladies in the play at one time or another. Perhaps the most memorable scene between the two would-be lovers, albeit a cliché of the comedy of the time, comes when they lay down their conditions for marriage. Few could fail to sympathise with Millamant’s aversion to being "intimate with fools because they may be your relations" or Mirabell’s plea for his wife to shun bizarre aids to beauty. While the floor of the stage is painted chessboard, albeit in shades of pink rather than black and white, there is little else to suggest that the characters are being manipulated. All that they experience (to call it suffering would be an exaggeration) they bring upon themselves. "My head’s in a maze like a dog in a dancing school", declares the perplexed Witwoud in the closing scene, a suitable comment on the play where you’re left wondering what it has all been for.
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