The Country Wife
Written by William Wycherley
Directed by John Ficarra
McGinn/Cazale Theatre
2162 Broadway
212-352-3101

Review by Andrea M. Meek

The bawdy comedy The Country Wife, written in 1675 by William Wycherley, was considered so sexually explicit that it was banned from the stage for nearly 200 years. Now, HoNkBark! and the Vital Theatre Company bring this story of sex and deception to the stage.

Three plots are tangled in a web of farcical complications. The main story follows ladies’ man Harry Horner (Richard Haratine) as he devises a scheme to have his doctor put the word out around London that he has returned from abroad an impotent man — a eunuch. With this ruse, Harry hopes to lull husbands into trusting him to be alone with their “virtuous” wives, enabling him greater access to seduce them. In another plotline, Mr. Pinchwife (Ray Rodriguez) has taken an ignorant “country wife,” Margery (Kristin Price), who he assumes will not have the intelligence to deceive him. But for all his caution, it is his wife’s naiveté and his own consuming jealousy that leads her to the wicked Horner. Contrasting these two tales of deception is the true-love plot of Pinchwife’s sister Alithea and Horner’s friend Harcourt. Although Alithea (Linda Jones) falls in love with Harcourt (Steve Kuhel), she decides to remain true in her engagement to the ridiculous and flamboyant Sparkish (Brian Linden), until a mix-up causes Sparkish to doubt her virtue.

The Country Wife’s set is rich with red and gold tones, paintings, and hanging picture frames that are utilized as doors and windows. The lovely detailed costumes and the trio of musicians also add a sense of luxury to the atmosphere. Wycherley’s dialogue, ripe with wit and double entendre, and Ficarra’s direction move us, for the most part, quickly through the three-hour production, but it is the scenes between Kristin Price and Ray Rodriguez in the Pinchwife plot that most enliven the show. Brian Linden as the outrageous Sparkish also adds a breath of fresh air to the stage.  As for the role of Horner, Richard Haratine seems miscast. While Haratine is sensual enough to devise such a ruse of passion, he comes off as much too sinister to believably win the hearts of women — or the audience.