THE PROVOK’D WIFE

 

By Sir John Vanbrugh

 

Performed at Avington House on 13th to 18th July, 1981

 

The Players

Sir John Brute

James Smith

Lady Brute

Mollie Manns

Bellinda

Joan Ritchie

Lady Fancyfull

Julie Baker

Madamoiselle

Jenni Watson

Cornet

Marion Gimson

Maid

Christine Evans

Heartfree

Ken Hann

Constant

Bill McCann

Rasor

Graham Buchanan

Lovewell

Lynda Edwards

Lord Rake

Michael Patterson

Colonel Bully

David Pike

Landlord

Lawrence Till

Tailor

Lawrence Till

Constable

Brian Whitaker

Watch

Mike Johnson

Justice Of The Peace

Tony Bull

Chairmen, Servants and Wenches

Peter Curtis, Lynda Edwards, Christine Evans, Lawrence Tilly, Martin Taylor, Sandy White, Julia Patterson

 

For The Maskers

Director:

Philippa Taylor

Production Team

Joy Wingfield, Audrey Whitaker, Ivan White, Clive Weeks, Brian Stansbridge, Ken Spencer, Gill Roberts, Becket Pennington-Legh, Ann Pennington-Legh, Michael Patterson, Christine Morley, Alan Moore, Mike Mcdermid, Steve Hopley

Keith Hooper, Graham Buchanan

 

Christine Baker, Ann Archer

 

Costumes

 ‘Deniv Costumes’, Wallingford, Oxon.

Wigs:

‘Wig Creations’ (Mayfair)

 

Sir John Vanbrugh

Sir John Vanbrugh, dramatist and architect, was born in London and baptized on 24 January 1664. He was the fourth of nineteen children of a wealthy sugar refiner of Flemish descent and his wellborn English wife. The family moved to Chester when Vanbrugh was still a boy. Little else is known of his youth except that he studied in France between 1683 and 1685. He received a commission in the army in 1636 but resigned it by 1689. In Calais in 1690 he was arrested for reasons that are obscure. Subsequently, he spent eighteen months in French prisons; his last confinement was in the Bastille, where he began writing sketches for a comedy. He was finally released in 1692.

 

In 1695 in London, he saw a production of Cibber’s comedy Love’s Last Shif’. This inspired him to write a sequel to it, The Relapse, or Virtue in Dange’ which was an immediate success in 1696. The following year The Provok’d Wife (thought to be the play started in the Bastille) was presented and became one of Vanbrugh’s biggest triumphs. Most of his succeeding plays were translations or adaptations from the French.

 

By 1699, having secured for himself a place in the theatre, Vanbrugh embarked on a career as an architect, and, as such, he achieved considerable renown, a remarkable achievement since, as far as is known, he had had no formal training. He first designed Castle Howard, built for the Earle of Carlisle ; his most famous work is Blenheim Palace, built for the Ist Duke of Marlborough. In addition, he was the architect of his own theatre, the Queen’s Theatre, in 1704. In 1702 he was appointed Comptroller of the Board of Works, and he was knighted in 1714.

 

In 1719 Vanbrugh married Henrietta Yarborough. They had one or possibly two sons. Vanbrugh

died in London on 26 March, 1726.