The Country Wife

The stars of Suffolk Youth Theatre lit up the Wolsey Theatre on Wednesday evening with their production of ‘The Country Wife’.

The company, whose ages range from 15 to 20, earned themselves rapturous applause from the audience at the end of their lively and energetic opening night performance of William Wycherley’s play.

The play, directed expertly by Michael Platt, deals with issues of sexual repression and is not suitable for children of a primary school age, as it tells the story of Harry Horner, a ‘Rake’. A Rake is what we would recognise today as a ‘playboy’ and Horner, played by former Northgate pupil Aaron Seaman, sets out to seduce the cities privileged ladies, but doing so with the blessing of their blissfully ignorant husbands.

Horner’s exploits lead to him being stuck in a corner. Hiding his many women in closets becomes the norm as it appears that even master of seduction Mr Horner has bitten off more than he can chew.

The plot thickens as Horner becomes involved with Mrs. Margery Pinchwife, wife of Mr Pinchwife, played by Lucy Tomlinson and Alfie Harries respectively as well as Lady Fidget (Nancy Smith), wife of Sir Jasper Fidget, played by Robin Dicker, who was excellent in the role.

Meanwhile, Alithea, the sister of Mr Pinchwife, has her own choice to make, in choosing to marry either Mr. Sparkish, played excellently by Joe Reed who put on a lively and engaging performance, or Mr. Harcourt, played by 20 year old Edmund Crosthwaite. One cast member said of Reed after the show that “From the first rehearsals I said to myself, he's going to be the significant role that everyone talks about after the show; his presence onstage is amazing”.

The audience will be captivated and drawn in as the play, which is fast paced and features many enjoyable songs, all performed by the cast using their own voices and playing their own instruments, goes on before reaching its conclusion.

Tina Baston, who gave a first-rate performance as Alithea thought the opening night went well and said “It was so satisfying having an audience to feed off their reactions or even just their presence made a difference and reminded us why we’d worked so hard for six months. Director Mike Platt said it was our best performance, so it was good to impress him”.

However, Miss Baston, 18, went onto concede that there is room for improvement: “There's always room for improvement. But I think every night will be different, yet equally as successful as each other - it all depends on the encouragement of the audience, along with our interpretation of the lines that night! Spontaneity, particularly through physicality, can be really effective at times, especially in a Restoration Comedy like this”.

Sixth Form College Colchester pupil Tina finished by saying that she was looking forward to the rest of the performances and said “It's all so exciting and I’ll miss it so much when it's over next week! We've got such a great connection to each other as we've shared experiences and are of the same age group”.