The Stage

The Way of the World

Published Wednesday 8 February 2012 at 10:44 by Katie Galbraith

William Congreve’s 1700 play, The Way of the World, struts into the Crucible on killer heels. It’s a restoration comedy that fashion designer Alexander McQueen would have been proud of.

Deborah Findlay (Lady Wishfort) in The Way of the World at the Crucible, Sheffield (previous picture shows Ben Lloyd-Hughes as Mirabell) Photo: Johan Persson

Set designer Naomi Wilkinson wraps Mr Congreve’s work in a great big haute couture bow, and it works. Credit must also go to lighting designer Rick Fisher and sound designer Tom Mills for adding a coat of contemporary fashion gloss to the 18th century.

Director Lyndsey Turner admits Congreve’s plotting is extraordinary. It took a good twenty minutes to work out what was going on but, as Turner says, the plot isn’t really the focus of the dramatic experience, it’s the compelling tug of war between the characters.

Ben Lloyd-Hughes and Sinead Matthews, playing the lovers Mirabell and Millamant, swagger and flounce their way about the set in a reluctant courtship dance. It’s Lloyd-Hughes’ professional stage debut but he makes a charismatic leading man against the iron fragility of the diminutive Matthews.

Respect is also due to Daisy Lewis as Marwood who spends the entire play on six inch heels while quivering with a raw energy, and her dark hearted lover, Fainall, played with bristling meanness by Leo Bill.

The best comic moments are provided by “poodle haired Dandy” Witwould, played by Samuel Barnett, and his wild-eyed sidekick, Petulant (Joel Gillman). But it’s Deborah Findlay, playing vain and vulnerable Lady Wishfort, who steals the show as a middle-aged woman in search of love.