Word: wife
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Arok began life as just another gadget for an automated house, he has also become- in some peculiar way-a member of the family. Skora's wife Sharon was indifferent to her husband's creation at first, but now the couple cannot help being a bit anthropomorphic about what is their only child. They start the day by saying good morning to him. They keep a scrapbook of his press clippings. They worry about his delicate circuits the way parents worry about a nagging winter cough...
...Country Wife--Restoration comedy at the Loeb, 64 Brattle St., Friday at 8, Saturday...
William Wycherly was one of the better writers from this period, and The Country Wife is one of his better plays, some say the best. The plot revolves around a professional rake named Horner, who with the help of his doctor, Quack, convinces the men of London society that he is impotent. Led by Sir Jaspar Fidget, these men of court eagerly dump their wives on Horner in the hopes that his "harmless" company will keep them away from young swains who would sooner cuckold a husband than look at one. Naturally, Horner spends the rest of the play leaping...
...must have been downright obscene. Through Horner, Wycherly punctures the veneer of London society and shows that the underlying motivations of all these "noble" people are sex and greed, made vulga by the artificial gentility which tries to hide them from view. What makes the country wife so refreshing is her total lack of 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...
...tongue down the ladies' throats is a bit much. Still, Horan copes well with the assignment Wycherly gives him; he is the satirical voice in the play. Horan would be the focus of the production were it not for Diane Venora's wonderful portrayal of Mafgery, the country wife. She literally saves the second and third acts as she camps and mugs her way out of her husband's jealous clutches and into Horner's lecherous arms. Venora puts on a very funny rural English accent and manages to be consistent about it, and her stage presence is excellent...