The Constant Wife
| The Constant Wife | |
|---|---|
| Written by | W. Somerset Maugham |
| Characters | Mrs. Culver Bentley Martha Culver Barbara Fawcett Constance Middleton Marie-Louise Durham John Middleton FRCS Bernard Kersal Mortimer Durham |
| Date premiered | November 1, 1926 |
| Place premiered | Ohio Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | comedy of manners |
| Setting | A house in Harley Street, 1920s |
The Constant Wife, a play written in 1926 by W. Somerset Maugham, is a comedy whose modern and amusing take on marriage and infidelity gives a quick-witted, alternative view on how to deal with an extramarital affair.
A "sparkling comedy of ill manners", The Constant Wife features the resourceful and charming Constance Middleton, who has long known that her husband had been having an affair with her best friend, Marie-Louise. When the affair is publicly acknowledged, rather than reprimanding or divorcing him, she embraces the opportunity to create an independent life, starting a new job, paying her husband for room and board, and taking on her own lover.
The Constant Wife was later published for general sale in April 1927.
The Constant Wife was most recently on Broadway in 2005, where Variety described it as "an antecedent to the women of 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Sex and the City'". The production's Kate Burton (Constance) and Lynn Redgrave (her mother) were nominated for Tony Awards.