There is something deliciously deceptive about entering the world of The Constant Wife. At first glance, it’s all poise and polish: elegant, art deco design, immaculate tailoring, and conversation as smooth as a very dry Martini. But beneath the lacquered civility, this timely revival of W. Somerset Maugham’s classic drawing room drama, reveals a sharp, sardonic bite.
Set a century ago in 1926, the narrative about a fractured, fragile marriage feels as contemporary as when first performed. Described as Maugham's "most clever and captivating creations", Constance has been married for fifteen years to John Middleton, a successful London doctor. In this comedy of manners, she navigates her husband's infidelity with wit and intelligence, delving into Noel Coward territory of closet love affairs and private lives.
John: ‘You are the most maddening, wilful, capricious, wrong-headed, delightful and enchanting woman, a man was ever cursed with having for a wife.”
Centre stage, Constance is a calm, self-possessed woman who refuses the expected role of dutiful, domesticated perfect wife. Rather than collapsing under the weight of her husband’s adultery, she quietly rewrites the terms of engagement to interrogate the economics and emotional arithmetic of marriage itself.
In the title role, Kara Tointon delivers a finely-etched performance, sophisticated, confident and quietly perceptive. She charts Constance’s transformation with assurance, allowing moments of vulnerability to surface without ever surrendering control.
While much of the humour is distilled into glances, pauses and faint curl of a lip, Sarah Crowe as Mrs Culver, delivers a flurry of laugh-out-loud lines debating the tedious, daily routine of marriage. ‘It must be very tiresome to have three meals a day, seven days a week with the same woman. Men can’t stand boredom as well as women.’
The light hearted, comedic direction provides delightful flickers of farce - doors opening at inconvenient moments, amorous encounters and truths revealed with ill-timed precision.
Intimate chit chat between Constance, her mother, sister and best friend, revolves around the shifting moral landscape of modern society, from the stoic acceptance of one generation to the younger, feminist women of independent minds.
Visually, the decorative set and fashionable costumes, balancing fashionable elegance with theatrical artifice, are creatively designed. A gorgeous Gershwin-styled jazzy soundtrack threads through the drama with rhythmic beat and romantic frisson. The time frame moves back and forward through slickly choreographed scenes, often pausing key moments in the action to heighten emotional tension.
This new adaptation by Laura Wade is sharply observed to emphasise that the true scandal is not John’s extra marital affair itself, but the system that accommodates it. Constance’s quiet rebellion - having it all, career and family, freely flirting with Bernard, her former fiancé - feels both attune to the 1920s and 2020s.
This is, in many ways, a production to admire: crisply composed, charismatic characters, an entertaining plot with twists and turns. Yet there are a few over the top performances which do not ring true and the dramatic tone at times simmers slowly without catching fire, gliding like a sedate waltz rather than a tango, fizzing with passion and punch.
However, Maugham (a homosexual in a marriage of convenience), was a master at understanding the complex entanglements of love, betrayal and jealousy in relationships. Like Ibsen’s feisty heroines Nora and Hedda, before her, ‘The Constant Wife’ feels trapped but is brave enough to challenge the conventions of polite society.
Showtimes:
31st March – 4 April, 2026
Evenings at 7.30pm. Matinee, Thur and Sat, 2.30pm
Ticket prices: from £23. (concessions and discounts)
Age: 14+