Word: alithea
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Pinchwife's jealous attempts to keep his wife shut away from the temptations of the town prove ineffectual in deterring his wife's simple-minded quest for a good time. Meanwhile, there are all sorts of subplots and subthemes, including the rake Harcourt's wooing of Pinchwife's sister, Alithea, away from her foppish fiance, Sparkish...
...artifice and her good-hearted gusto for sex and fun. Yet she too is a fool, just as Pinchwife and Sir Fidget are fools, just as the Ladies Fidget and Squeamish are hypocrites. There is no one at all who is admirable in the play, unless it be Alithea, but she is no innocent herself, deftly playing one suitor against another...
...done, though the tend to blend together as characters. David Eddy as Harcourt has one very funny sequence when disguised as a lisping cleric. Thomas Champion as Pinchwife starts a little slowly, but by the second act he warms to his role and becomes genuinely funny. Linda Cameron as Alithea and Lucy Stone McNeece suavely handle their parts, although Cameron could have injected a little more life into the admittedly flat part of Alithea. Even the various servants, played by Ralph Zito, Michael Miller and Andy Sellon are funny, particularly in the drinking scene...
...Mistress Alithea (Sally Faith Dorfman) is the only one who does not what to join in the sport. She sincerely believes in fidelity, yet even she is not a completely positive figure. Her virtue appears ridiculous because her finance. Sparkish, to whom she is so stubbornly faithful, is the most absurd...
...with a flourish which fully exploit the affectations of his role. He offers an excellent contrast to Pinchwife, played by Richard Minturn, who makes his face a sour, frowning mask that states his personality. Pinchwife is as overly protective of his wife's honor as Sparkish is negligent of Alithea's. Keeping his country wife under lock and key. Pinchwife confidently declares, "I understand the town." The audience takes enormous delight when the young, inexperienced Margery defeats the old coot, who thinks himself so wise...