13th Play - 7/13/23 - A Bold Stroke for A Wife - Susanna Centlivre

Yep, I promised I’d read this one after realizing that A Bold Stroke for a Husband was referring to this one. And now I have done that.

Summary: "If you’re looking for a restoration play that tackles the patriarchy (comedically, of course)… you’ve met your match. A star vehicle for a charismatic actor, this Moliere-esque comedy deftly ridicules hypocrisy, greed, hubris, and the absurdity of women’s position as property. Anne Lovely has not one but four bizarre male guardians who must give consent to her marriage, and Colonel Fainwell is determined to win each over through the clever use of disguises. With insightful satire, physical comedy, and modern humor, this tight plot keeps an audience in joyful suspense until the final moment." (Expand the Canon)

Loved: I LOVE that this play from 1718 was written by a woman! Who needs Shakespeare and Moliere when you've got Centlivre?! I definitely want to know more about her. Per Expand the Canon, where I found this play, "Susanna Centlivre is perhaps the most successful English playwright after William Shakespeare by number of performances before the twentieth century." LET'S DO MORE! I loved the clever machinations the main character, Colonel Fainwell, has to go to to obtain permission for the hand of poor Anne Lovely from her RIDICULOUS four guardians. I loved the fact that he has friends, Freeman and Sackbut (also, how can you not love these NAMES!), who help him out and are quite clever in their own right. I really appreciated that the playwright did not make it easy for Fainwell; even though he does convince each guardian pretty quickly (not really a spoiler as you KNOW how things will turn out, it's an 18th century play), she places MORE obstacles in his way - the Quaker he is impersonating shows up minutes behind him, insisting that he is lying (which of course, he is) and the guardian Periwinkle sees through his ruse with the invisible girdle and he has to find another way to trick him. Centlivre does not make it too easy for the hero to win the fair maiden, although, truth be told, each of the guardians are mostly pretty stupid. That's fun, and I believe, quite intentional on the playwright’s part. When Fainwell and Anne are FINALLY in a scene together, pretending that Anne is converting to be a Quaker (long story, just read it), Anne gets to play in the game with Fainwell, which is fun.

What I didn’t Love: Unfortunately, there's only one woman that you like in the play, Anne Lovely, and naturally she's completely at the mercy of all the stupid men in her life, including her dead father who set up the four-man guardianship so that she would never be able to marry. Also, the star of the play is Fainwell, not Lovely. Most of the action is perpetuated by the men in the piece - Anne only gets to play a little bit. The other women in the play are Mrs. Prim, the wife of the Quaker guardian, who is dour and boring (might be fun to play, but not the greatest feminist role), and Betty, the servant, who I don't even remember. So, once again, we need lots of men and few women. Boo. Because of that, I'd recommend A Bold Stroke for a Husband over this one, with its FIVE females WHO ACTUALLY HAVE AGENCY. At least this play was written by a female, but ... Again, I ask, do we need to put this misogyny out in the world?

Overall: It's a fun play, probably more fun to watch than read. It's a little denser language-wise than A Bold Stroke for a Husband, and probably better written and crafted. If you're looking for more heightened language, boom. If you're looking for better roles for women, look elsewhere, folks. It is a great role for the main character, Fainwell, but ... Well, how many more great roles for men do we need? I think if I directed this I'd either do it cross-gender or all female. Cross-gender would be fun to let the men play the roles with no agency and let the audience get a taste of how that would feel. Not a new idea, but more original than just letting the men rule the world, sigh.

Here’s a link to Google Sheets with more info about the play: Play a Day Sheet

Let’s read more about Susanna Centlivre: https://dragkinghistory.com/1685-1723-susanna-centlivre/ Did you notice that says “dragkinghistory” - yep - this is a really cool website!