Tag: David Pugh

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Kara Tointon to star in Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Constant Wife on tour at York Theatre Royal next January

Kara Tointon in the role of Constance in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s touring production of The Constant Wife

THE Royal Shakespeare Company’s touring production of The Constant Wife is to play York Theatre Royal from January 26 to 31 2026.

2010 Strictly Come Dancing winner Kara Tointon will star in Laura Wade’s new version of W Somerset Maugham’s 1926 comedy, directed by RSC co-artistic director Tamara Harvey.

Described as “a sparkling comedy of ill manners”, The Constant Wife is set in 1927. Constance is a deeply unhappy woman. “Nonsense,” says her mother. “She eats well, sleeps well, dresses well and she’s losing weight. No woman can be unhappy in those circumstances.”

Constance is the perfect wife and mother, and her husband is as devoted to her as he is to his mistress, who just happens to be her best friend.

The tour poster for the RSC’s The Constant Wife, booked into York Theatre Royal from January 26 to 31 next year

The Constant Wife reunites Olivier Award-winning writer Wade and director Harvey, having worked together on Home, I’m Darling, since when Wade was the executive producer and writer for Rivals, the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster novel.

Kara Tointon has played Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion in London’s West End, Dawn Swann in EastEnders from 20025 to 2009 and Rose Selfridge in the television period drama Mr Selfridge, as well as Bella Manningham in Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight at the Grand Opera House, York, in February 2017.

RSC co-artistic directors Harvey and Daniel Evans said: “Our ambition is to bring joy to as many audiences as possible, deepening our understanding of ourselves and the world around us, and so we are thrilled to be bringing The Constant Wife to stages across the UK, following its success at the Swan in Stratford.

Kara Tointon as Bella Manningham on tour at Grand Opera House, York, in February 2017

“It will be so exciting to get back into the rehearsal room with our new company, led by the brilliant Kara Tointon, and for us to bring Laura Wade’s razor-sharp script to life.”

The tour is presented by Cunard and David Pugh, five-time Olivier Award and two-time Tony Award winning producer, who said: “I’m delighted to have commissioned Laura Wade to adapt this comedy and to be working with the Royal Shakespeare Company on this new production of The Constant Wife.

“Partnering again with Cunard, with whom I’ve had such a wonderful ongoing relationship, continues to be a joy. For me, in the times that we’re in, there is nothing better than to bring comedy to audiences in theatres all around the UK and to hear people laughing.”

Priority booking for York Theatre Royal members opens today (29/9/2025) from 1pm. Tickets go on general sale on October 4 from 1pm. Box office:  01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/show/the-constant-wife. Performances will be at 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees.

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REVIEW: Pride And Prejudice * (*Sort Of), York Theatre Royal, until Saturday ****

On song in Pride And Prejudice * (*Sort Of) at York Theatre Royal all this week. Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic

THIS rollicking, risqué, irreverent  romp through Pride And Prejudice is not to be confused with the work of Austentatious, “an entirely improvised comedy play in the style of Jane Austen” that changes with every performance and audience suggestion.

This is very definitely Pride And Prejudice * (*Sort Of), penned with waspish wit by Isobel McArthur “after Austen” to Olivier Award-winning success for Best Comedy.

McArthur, who also won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Emerging Talent, now directs the Newcastle Theatre Royal/David Pugh & Cunard touring production of her West End smash, and what a joyous society ball after society ball of delight it is.

In an Upstairs Downstairs world, McArthur has five cheeky servants, in their cleaning Marigolds and work boots, introducing Austen’s love story from the Downstairs perspective, as important to the retelling as the Witches in Macbeth or a Greek chorus in ancient Greek dramas but with oodles of offhand humour.

Susie Barrett, Emma Rose Creaner, Rhianna McGreevy, Naomi Preston Low and Christine Steel will each play multiple characters, from all the Bennets to the suitors, suitable or unsuitable, and the terrifying aunt in Lady Bracknell mode. Oh, and these Bennet sisters are doing it for themselves, all with differing accents, whether Scottish, Irish, Midlands or Yorkshire.

McArthur’s tone is at once faithful yet anarchic. Well, as faithful as the leaflet trailer would indicate: “It’s the 1800s. It’s party time. Let the ruthless match-making begin.” “Party time” is the perfect excuse to perform pop nuggets such as Will You Love Me Tomorrow, You’re So Vain and the closing Young Hearts Run Free in 19th century frocks and sometimes adapted lyrics pertinent to the character.

It can be like watching a talent show-fostered girl group or those oh-so competitive pop Queens in Six, the other all-female hit doing the touring rounds.

Equally, you could bring to mind Absolutely Fabulous, Derry Girls or Phoebe Waller Bridge’s audacious writing for Fleabag and Killing Eve, while the multi-role playing at breath-taking pace echoes the affectionate satire of the much-missed Lip Service or Patrick Barlow’s take on The 39 Steps.

This is not to draw comparison with those works. McArthur’s Pride And Prejudice is not sort of any of them. It is fabulous, funny, frank and filthy in its own right: you will cheer at Preston Low’s potty-mouthed Elizabeth Bennet – as feisty as Freya Parks’s Jo March in Little Women at the Theatre Royal last month – firing off an Eff Off with both barrels. How appropriate her servant role should be called Effie!

Emma Rose Creaner, an uncorked pocket dynamo from Cork, is a riot as Charles Bingley and even more so as his acerbic, spoilt sister Miss Bingley.

Rhianna McGreevy has a touch of the AbFabs as match-making Mrs Bennet, forever in need of a stiff drink, and her Fitzwilliam Darcy is even better, with the ever-so-gradual loosening of his stuffed shirt, the pricking of his insufferable pomposity, the tongue either tied or acidic. Go (Colin) Firth and multiply by ten, but then comes the climactic scene with Preston Low’s Elizabeth, the confession of love, so clumsy but sincere, beautifully delivered and yes, romantic too.

You will enjoy Barrett’s exasperated teenage Mary Bennet and especially Steel’s scene-stealing Lady Catherine de Burgh, the cue to unleash Chris de Burgh’s Lady In Red, a smart cultural reference typical of McArthur’s humour, matched by the nod to Firth’s notorious lake scene from the 1995 BBC mini-series.

Praise too for the comedy staging of Jo Houben and Ana Ines Jabares-Pita’s flamboyant costumes and set design with its stairwell so suited to grand entrances and girl-group pop performances alike and the high-speed use of doors for surprise entries and exits. Without giving anything away, look out for the horse too.  

For maximum pleasure, it does help to know Austen’s story – then again, who didn’t at Monday’s packed press night?! – but the raucous humour, the romance, the irreverence, has such brio, surely everyone will have a ball. Party time indeed, just perfect for these November nights.

Pride And Prejudice* (*Sort Of), York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.