Modern interpretations of The Country Wife

The Country Wife Modern Interpretations:

Tanika Gupta -

• Horner, now Hardeep is a Punjabi rapper who has acquired a recording contract in modern day London.
• Margery Pinchwife is portrayed as a captive Asian bride.
• This is a multicultural portrayal. This is important because one of the characters is upset about their Asian sister being admired by an African America man. Using  a racially diverse cast allows for different interpretations of the play (Billington).

Rachel Atkins - 

• Emphasizes the certain qualities already give in the script.
• The men are extremely obsessed with not being cuckolded and very competitive,
• The women are very self aware of what is going on but are seemingly okay with it (Somers).

Phoebe Brooks -

• This interpretation explores gender fluidity and monogamy.
• Horner, in this play, is not a play boy with a plot to lay with any married woman he can but is gender fluid and simply does not want to conform to gender binaries. 
• The men trust their wives with Horner is because he’s not “entirely man”. The woman also react very differently to Horner’s androgynous life and mostly stay true to  Wycherley’s original text but now adds different meanings to each relationship (The Country Wife). 

These interpretations all point to the fact that this play still speaks very deeply to modern day playwrights and directors. Modern interpretations tend to to focus on ideas such as racial diversity, women’s sexuality, gender fluidity and monogamy to comment on the situations presented by Wycherley. 

Work Cited

Billington, Michael. “The Country Wife, Palace, Watford.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 15 Oct. 2004, www.theguardian.com/stage/2004/oct/15/theatre.

Somers, Dusty, et al. “Dick Jokes and Gender Roles in 'The Country Wife'.” City Arts Magazine, 3 Apr. 2018, www.cityartsmagazine.com/dick-jokes-and-gender-roles-in-the-country-wife/.

“The Country Wife.” Theatre Is Easy | Reviews | The Country Wife, www.theasy.com/Reviews/2015/C/thecountrywife.php.