Restoring the Repertoire
T1417854010
Archive :: production:T1417854010, performance:S2073865600, venue:V76
A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1718)
This wonderful play is perhaps the finest example of Centlivre's masterful plotting of comic intrigue. The soldier Feignwell and Anne Lovely are in love, but their path to the altar is blocked by her guardians Sir Philip Modelove who has ?May in his fancy and dress, but December in his face and heels'; Periwinkle ?a kind of virtuoso ? a silly half witted fellow'; Tradelove ?a fellow that would out-lie the devil for the advantage of stock' and Centlivre's magnificent creation ? ?the very rigid Quaker' Obadiah Prim; each of whom has a different view of what sort of husband would make the right match. The satirical bite of this sparkling comedy is directed at Tory respectability, religious propriety and capitalist speculative greed.
