The Players Revivals 1931: "The Way of the World" by William Congreve
By TOWNES COATES
The tenth revival had the club embrace William Congreve, whose “The Way of the World” (1700) is commonly considered the summit of English Restoration comedy and, notoriously, one of its most intricate. Beneath the famously labyrinthine plot lies the courtship of Mirabell and the brilliant Millamant, whose “proviso scene,” in which the two lovers negotiate the terms of their marriage before consenting to it, remains one of the wittiest exchanges in the language. Its first audiences found it too clever by half; posterity has ranked it at the top. The Players revival opened June 1, 1931, and ran through June 8 at the Guild Theatre, which we know today as the August Wilson Theatre. It was staged by B. Iden Payne, the English director and Shakespearean who would later lead the festival at Stratford-upon-Avon. Walter Hampden played Mirabell, and Fay Bainter, who had been Mrs. Sullen in the club’s 1928 “Beaux Stratagem,” returned as Millamant, a role every comedienne coveted. Alice Fischer was the much-deceived Lady Wishfort; Ernest Cossart played Sir Wilfull; Cora Witherspoon, Selena Royle, and Dorothy Stickney rounded out the women. The married team of Gene and Kathleen Lockhart appeared together as the scheming servants Waitwell and Foible. It was, in a sense, Broadway's second bite at Congreve in a decade: a commercial production of this play had run on Broadway across the 1924–25 season. The club would return to the playwright with “Love for Love” in 1940. Congreve, who is considered a giant of Restoration literature, abandoned the stage young and lived out a long, comfortable life on the strength of a handful of exceptionally crafted comedies. He would perhaps have understood the appeal of our annual revival: the pleasure of doing a difficult thing beautifully and briefly, for its own sake, and then letting it go. The Players Revivals were a series of short engagements in Broadway houses mounted by the club between the world wars. With a membership comprised of producers, directors, actors, designers, and lovers of the stage, the club was well-suited to produce these plays, which were staffed entirely by club members and colleagues. The 8–10 performance runs served as a source of income for the club.
Townes Coates is a writer and producer of documentary film. He serves as the Chairman of The Players.
Comments