The Constant Wife
★★★★☆ Enormously entertaining
Festival Theatre: Tue 31 Mar – Sat 4 Apr 2026
Review by Ruth Bennett
The RSC’s production of The Constant Wife, by Laura Wade based on the comedy by W Somerset Maugham at the Festival Theatre until Saturday as part of a UK tour, establishes its tone immediately.
Bentley (Philip Rham), the ultimate gentleman’s gentleman, sits at the piano in an elegant drawing room. He so convincingly mimes playing that it seems the notes – a lush composition by composer Jamie Cullum — are called forth from his fingers. But then the woodwinds start…
Philip Rham. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic.
And so it goes throughout, flickering between naturalism and mannered farce. Unsurprisingly for two odd things yoked together, neither element gets fully developed. Still, there’s lots of fun, and entertainment polished to a high gloss, to be had along the way.
It doesn’t give away any spoilers to say that John Middleton (Tim Delap) is cheating on his wife Constance (Kara Tointon). Worse, it’s with her supposed best friend, Marie-Louise Durham (Gloria Onitiri).
Her sister Martha Culver (Amy Vicary-Smith) knows, and has to be restrained by their weight-obsessed mother (Sara Crowe) from telling her. The rest of the play unspools how Constance learns of the affair, and what she does with that information.
zealously pragmatic
The magnificent Tointon plays Constance completely straight, as the zealously pragmatic upper-class woman who knows exactly how fortunate she is. Other characters, especially Onitiri as her friend Marie-Louise, opt for varying degrees of stylization and deliberate melodrama.
It’s an odd choice by director Tamara Harvey, and one that can feel like the actors have been told they’re in different plays: The Importance of Being Constance, versus Henry James with added zingers.
Tim Delap and Amy Vicary-Smith. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic.
Much of the comedy is character-driven, though the often bemused Crowe, struggling to adapt to this very modern era of the 1920’s, has some excellent bon mots. The repartee is more Wilde-ish than Wildean, and not quite sparkling enough to carbonate the entire running time, so the play also has themes. Many, many themes.
Most announce themselves rather baldly. There’s the transition to the modern, and the shift of women’s roles (introduced, for example, with the on-the-nose musing, “What is a wife for, in our class?”). There’s the hypocrisy of the idle rich, and the fundamental unknowability of our nearest and dearest.
Thoughts on the fleeting nature of desire are also on offer, as is an Ibsenian plea for women’s economic independence. The question of how much we’re entitled to our own emotional reactions versus how much we’re obligated to be role models is explored at relative length.
complex and fascinating
The upside of this kind of grab-bag is that if one philosophical element doesn’t connect with you, another will be along in a moment. The downside is that most of these questions are posed but not engaged with. It’s a script that keeps telling you it has something to say, but then doesn’t end up saying much.
The way that it’s said is delightful, though. Tointon’s portrayal is complex and fascinating, and makes you crave knowing what makes Constance tick. Though we’re never given that insight – the psychodrama keeps getting choked by the farce – she’s irresistibly captivating. The entire cast is wonderfully fun to watch, even when they appear to be pulling in different directions.
Gloria Onitiri and Kara Tointon with Amy Vicary-Smith and Sara Crowe. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic.
It’s also beautiful to look at. Costume co-designers Anna Fleischle and Cat Fuller have embraced the extravagant Art Deco possibilities of the decade and take obvious delight in showcasing some glorious creations.
The touring set is a little small on the Festival Theatre’s stage and thus reinforces the dollshouse conceit. It works well, though a much-used entrance upstage right doesn’t match the sightlines of this large theatre and may deprive some of the audience of a few good visual gags.
Fleischle’s set is also cleverly intricate, and the scene breaks are stylized and lit to give the audience the pleasure of watching it transform. A misfire on opening night obscured explanatory text about a flashback and threatened confusion, but instead only ended up highlighting the smart built-in redundancy of the props, which were able to signal the passage of time by themselves.
Every object on this stage has a function, which of course is also lightly joked about – the meta-humour in the adaptation is amusing, even if some of the ultramodern throwaway lines are a bit jarring.
thematic overindulgence
The thematic overindulgence of The Constant Wife is likely an attempt to avoid characterisation as a diversion. But with escapism at a premium at the moment, leaning into a simple celebration of archness – as the production sometimes does in its second act – would be wildly (and Wildely) successful. Even in its current hybrid form, The Constant Wife is a gorgeous spectacle and thoroughly enjoyable romp.
Running time: Two hours and 15 minutes (including one interval)
Festival Theatre, 13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT.
Tuesday 31 March – Saturday 4 April 2026
Evenings: 7.30pm; Mats: Thur, Sat: 2.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Continues on tour to May:
Theatre Severn
7-11 April 2026
Leeds Grand Theatre
13-18 April 2026
Cheltenham Everyman Theatre
20-24 April 2026
Poole Lighthouse
27 April – 2 May 2026
Malvern Festival Theatre
5-9 May 2026
Bath Theatre Royal
11-16 May 2026
Amy Vicary-Smith and Kara Tointon. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic.
ENDS
