The Wonder
by Susanna Centlivre
Production photgraphs: 1 2 3 4
Reviews
˜˜˜˜ Critics’ Choice (two weeks running), Show of the Week.
A delightful comedy… Derek Bond’s production is the first in the UK for nearly 140 years… He extracts a lot of fun from the farcical proceedings, and there are strong performances from all, but the evening here belongs to Colonel Britton, a dashing soldier who, played by Adrian Metcalfe, exerts a plus-foured badgerish charm straight out of ‘Wind in the Willows’.
Robert Shore, Time Out, Mon Nov 6
Can Susannah Centlivre’s 1714 play possibly be as much fun as its title? Yes.
The Wonder! has had no British production for 140 years. It seems about that long since I last visited the White Bear, but for Centlivre’s sake I was happy to be back. It would now be excellent to see a bigger-theatre production of this farce, but James Perkins, designer and co-producer, has made a virtue of the White Bear’s limited space: he has created a single blue-and-white painted set that manages to seem now a street, now an interior.
The actors are all spirited, relishing the opportunities they are given and delivering the 18th-century language with panache. Adrian Metcalfe stands out for the debonair fatuity with which he plays Colonel Britton; the servant roles are impishly played. As the play proceeds, both cast and audience seem to have a better and better time.
Alastair Macaulay, Financial Times, Wed Nov 8
A deserved revival… This lively romp nicely balances determined feminism with wit and frivolity. Director Derek Bond and his cast do a fine job bringing the arcane language to life and creating convincing and entertaining characters. Kirsten Hazel Smith and Jessie Burton are natural as Isabella and Violante, while Jessica Dixon and Jessica Ransom provide an earthy and comic balance as maids Inis and Flora. Plaudits must go to Adrian Metcalfe as woman-obsessed Colonel Britton, who makes the language totally comprehensible and performs with spontaneity and charm. Dan Morgan, who steals the show with his comic portraits of Scottish footman Gibby and a nervous officer, is excellent. Bond directs with skill and maintains a quick pace, imperative in a farce.
Evelyn Curlet, The Stage, Mon Nov 6
Fantastically funny… The play is illuminated by the sophisticated and beautifully expressive dialogue. I became a Centlivre junky, highly addicted to unravelling and exploring each verbose line. Jessica Ransom is exceptional. Her quick-wittedness, gestures and delivery served to turn any dialogue she engaged in into a gem. I’d pay just to watch her. But the real inspiration of this play is the comic synergy, which goes far beyond what had been provided by Centlivre’s script.
Mike Williams, vanguardonline, Mon Nov 6
The Wonder! Is an incredibly witty and enjoyable play. Outstanding performances were provided by Adrian Metcalf (Colonel Britton) and Tom Robertson (Don Felix); Metcalf possessing a bubbling ease and fluency with Centlivre’s language while Robertson managed to create pathos within the melodrama… Much of the productions comedy was provided by Jessica Ransom(Flora); Ransom has an naturally sharp sense of timing, and a knack of encouraging the audience’s complicitie in her onstage actions. James Wrighton (Lissardo) makes a roguish buffoon tremendously likeable, and much hilarity follows his misguided attempts to woo Flora… Director Derek Bond presents a relaxed production. By allowing freer performances and enabling a play structured around dated customs to appear modern, Bond’s approach is a real success. With a stage like something out of Alice in Wonderland, stylised-period costumes and a talented cast, The Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret is a joyously mischievous evening at the Theatre, sure to have you grinning all the way home.
Sara Pascoe, UKtheatreweb / Fringereport
Synopsis
Set in Lisbon, the plot interweaves two romantic intrigues around one ‘secret’: the heroine Violante is hiding her best friend Isabella (who is the sister of her own lover Don Felix) from Isabella’s father, who wishes to marry her off to a rich but decrepit old merchant. As she is sworn to secrecy, Violante cannot reveal Isabella’s whereabouts, nor can she explain to Felix why Isabella’s new lover – a dashing British soldier – happens to be about the house, prompting Felix’s intense jealousy.
The Play
When The Wonder was published in 1714, Susanna Centlivre, was already immensely popular. In fact, through much of the 18th and 19th centuries, she was Britain’s most performed playwright after Shakespeare. It was said that any theatre owner in a fix could find a cast who knew the play and mount a production of The Wonder in less than an hour, and theatre companies often kept it in reserve as a certain success in case another play flopped. David Garrick chose to play Don Felix, a role he had played many times, for his farewell performance. In 1768, it was even performed in New York as an example of British culture for an audience of Native Americans.
Centlivre’s success lay in her clever construction of misunderstandings, range of essentially decent characters, and dialogue sparkling with wit. Her female characters in particular, show an ingenuity and wit that outshines most female characters in literature. It is widely thought that Centlivre was a strong influence on Jane Austen, who would certainly have seen Centlivre’s plays.
Some 18th century theatre owners found her work too explicit for a female writer, and so refused to perform it. Victorian Britain consigned Centlivre to the theatrical dustbin, as her writing was not deemed appropriate.
Though for over a hundred years she eclipsed the like of Vanbrugh, Sheridan and Cibber, this brilliant writer and excellent play have been reduced to a footnote in theatre history textbooks. After a production in Bath in 1868 no record can be found of a performance of The Wonder in the UK.
Susanna Centlivre: A Short Biography
b: c1670 d: 1st Dec 1723.
Escaping the cruelties of a fairytale wicked stepmother, Susanna Freeman ran away from her Lincolnshire home aged 15, intending to go to London. On the road she met Anthony Hammond, a young student at the University of Cambridge. They embarked on a relationship, and Centlivre lived with Hammond in his University accommodation disguised as a man, and even attended classes. After a number of months, they were on the brink of discovery, and so Centlivre left for London. When she arrived she was a lot better equipped than many other women - she had a University education, and Hammond had provided her with money, and introduced her to a a well-connected woman in London with a reference saying that she was the daughter of a deceased friend.
In London, Susanna attending the theatre a great deal, and attracted numerous admirers, and at the the age of 16, married Stephen Fox. The relationship lasted less than a year, when Fox died. She then married a soldier named Carrol, who was killed in a duel 18 months after their wedding. Susanna was not yet 19 and was already a double widow. She threw herself into the theatre, and performed with several acting companies, most notably in “breeches” roles, playing men such as Alexander the Great (in 1706). Coming to the attention of the court, she met and married a royal cook, Joseph Centlivre. Susanna died in 1723.
Her plays include: The Perjur’d Husband (1700), The Gamester and The Basset Table (1705), The Busie Body (1709) and A Bold Stroke For A Wife (1718).
