 Role Nigel Bennett as Thus Horner |
|
|
Anecdote "The Country Wife is a bitter comedy about a man who pretends impotence so as to gain free admittance to women that  he then seduces. I had a wonderful time and played the rudeness to the hilt. More than once the lights came up to find me on top of a woman, thrusting away....(only acting!!). I think it was the first time that I had my hair cropped like LaCroix. I had a great time in all my stage work. It is so different from TV or film. There is such an immediate sense of family. I was a wandering vagabond. I lived out of my car. For several years I had no permanent address. I look back with a deep sense of enjoyment and regret at how things have changed.
|
|
|
 Play Synopsis "Well my dear doctor, hast thou done what I desired?" "I have undone you forever with women, and reported you throughout the whole town as bad as an eunuch." Horner uses his friend the Quack to spread the word about town that he is impotent so that the jealous London husbands won't fear leaving their wives with him. Sir Jasper Fidget asks Horner to entertain his wife and sister, not knowing that Horner will use this opportunity to jump from one bed to another. The country wife Margery comes to town wanting to savor all the pleasures it has to offer. Her husband, the aptly named Pinchwife, supposedly knows the town all too well, and since he has not heard about Horner being a eunuch, forbids her to contact him. As Margery adapts to the new London life, Pinchwife becomes increasingly paranoid about being cuckolded. As the play progresses, the innocent Margery and the cynical, sex-driven Horner are heading on a collision course for one another. Can this woman keep a secret, or will the whole plot collapse bringing down Horner and all his other lovers? |