The Constant Wife, a comedy of manners

Comedy of manners

The comedy of manners is a genre of play/television/film which satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters, such as the miles gloriosus in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young...

, was written by W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham

William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...

 in 1926 and later published for general sales in April 1927.

Plot

The leading character, Constance Middleton, is a calm, intelligent and self-possessed wife of a successful London doctor. Knowing full well of her husband's infidelity with her best friend Marie-Louise, Constance purposefully maintains the fiction held by her other friends, mother and sister that she has no idea of the affair. However, when confronted by Marie-Louise's jealous husband, Constance reacts in a way not expected by her husband, mother or sister. She first deftly conceals the affair from the husband, and then tells her family that she has known all along. She further shocks them by demonstrating a total lack of sentiment on the subject of matrimony. The modern wife, she explains, is nothing but a parasite, "a prostitute who doesn't deliver the goods." She resolves to establish her own economic independence ("which she considers the only real independence"), going into business as an interior decorator. After a year of successful employment, she pays her husband for her room and board, and then announces she is going off for an Italian vacation with a longtime admirer. Her husband is, in turn, shocked and outraged at this turn of events, but finally capitulates to her outrageous charm as the curtain falls.

Production history

The play was first produced at the Ohio Theatre (Loudonville)

Ohio Theatre (Loudonville)

This article is about the theater in Loudonville, Ohio. For other uses, see Ohio Theatre.The Ohio Theatre in Loudonville, Ohio is one of many theaters in the state of Ohio named Ohio Theatre...

 Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, on November 1, 1926, with Ethel Barrymore

Ethel Barrymore

Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...

 playing the title role, and Mabel Terry-Lewis

Mabel Terry-Lewis

Mabel Gwynedd Terry-Lewis was a British actress and a member of the Terry-Gielgud dynasty of actors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries....

, and C. Aubrey Smith as support. It ran on Broadway for 295 performances, and was successfully toured by Ms. Barrymore afterwards. When the first edition of the play was published in 1927 Maugham dedicated it to her. Years later, he said that her performance was the best he had seen in any of his plays.

The West End

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 premiere at the Strand Theatre

Novello Theatre

The Novello Theatre is a West End theatre on Aldwych, in the City of Westminster.-History:The theatre was built as one of a pair with the Aldwych Theatre on either side of the Waldorf Hotel, both being designed by W. G. R. Sprague. The theatre opened as the Waldorf Theatre on 22 May 1905, and was...

 in April 1927, starring Fay Compton

Fay Compton

Fay Compton was an English actress from a notable acting lineage; her father was actor/manager Edward Compton; her mother, Virginia Bateman, was a distinguished member of the profession, as were her sister, the actress Viola Compton, and her uncles and aunts. Her grandfather was the 19th-century...

, was by contrast, a critical and box-office fiasco. Subsequent London revivals have starred Ruth Chatterton

Ruth Chatterton

Ruth Chatterton was an American actress, novelist, and early aviatrix.- Early life :Chatterton was born in New York City, on Christmas Eve 1892, to Walter Smith and Lillian Reed Chatterton...

 (Globe Theatre

Globe Theatre

The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613...

, 1937); Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...

 (Albery Theatre, September 1973 — note, John Gielgud

John Gielgud

Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...

's staging, also starring Ingrid Bergman and Jack Gwillim

Jack Gwillim

Jack William Frederick Gwillim was a prolific English character actor.-Career:Born in Canterbury, Kent, England, he served in the Royal Navy for over twenty years, attaining the rank of Commander...

, was subsequently revived at the Shubert Theatre

Shubert Theatre

Shubert Theatre or Shubert Theater may refer to:Theatres*Shubert Theatre , New York City, built in 1913.*Shubert Theatre , Connecticut, built in 1914.*Shubert Theatre , California, demolished in 2002....

 on Broadway in April 1975); and Jenny Seagrove

Jenny Seagrove

Jennifer Ann Seagrove is an English actress. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and rose to fame playing the lead in a TV dramatisation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance and the 1983 film Local Hero...

 (Apollo Theatre

Apollo Theatre

The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...

, April 2002, then transferring to the Lyric Theatre

Lyric Theatre (London)

The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...

, June 2002).

In December 1951, a revival starring Katharine Cornell

Katharine Cornell

Katharine Cornell was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.Cornell is known as the greatest American stage actress of the 20th century...

 was staged for a summer festival in Colorado. It was such a success that Cornell took the production to the National Theatre on Broadway starring herself and Brian Aherne

Brian Aherne

Brian Aherne was a British actor of both stage and screen, who found success in Hollywood.-Early life and stage career:...

. It grossed more money for Cornell's production company than any play she and her husband-director Guthrie McClintic

Guthrie McClintic

Guthrie McClintic was a successful theatre director, film director and producer based in New York. -Life and career:...

 ever produced.

Recent revivals include New York City (2005), Minneapolis (2005), and Charleston, SC (2007).