What, in the age of #MeToo, would make it worthwhile to sit through three and a half hours of two scheming men’s attempts to get two young women to succumb to their slapstick advances? Especially when those men are their own boyfriends, masquerading as strangers to test their fidelity—and to win a bet?
This production, originally directed by John Cox, moves the setting up from the 18th century to a seaside resort at the start of World War I, introducing a heavy, real-world backdrop to an otherwise broadly comic fantasy-farce. If it still works, it’s because while the ostensible subject is women’s constancy, the real subject has always been the full scope of human nature. That, and the music.
