ARTicles vol. 3 i.1a: Introducing Mark Wing-Davey

One of the U.K.’s foremost directors, Mark Wing-Davey is a former member of the Joint Stock Theatre Group, a collaborative ensemble that produced some of the most provocative work on the British stages in the 1970’s. He first came to prominence in the United States with his production of Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest in 1992, winning the Village Voice OBIE Award for Outstanding Director of the year. His production of The Provok’d Wife has been inspired by a wide array of social and cultural histories. Wing-Davey spoke with A.R.T. Institute dramaturgy student Shari Perkins. SP: How do you interpret a period play in the present? MWD: Doing any period piece, you have that ricochet between what seems up to the minute and what seems historical. What was the meaning of the play in its time, what was the meaning of going to the theatre? What was it like to actually do it on stage, and how does that affect what it is like? SP: What factors do you consider when directing a Restoration play? MWD: One of the interesting things about the Restoration is the social context – the day-to-day life of the period – the physical life of an audience going into a playhouse to see the play, the smells of rotting flesh or rotting vegetables, the process of decay, the difference between our approaches to mortality, or what it means to have a child or not to have a child. What does pregnancy mean? What does sex mean? Restoration theatres were often quite clean in their design, so that the danger is that the piece itself can become antiseptic in modern times. I would maintain that the audience in their sweat and closeness brought with them a much greater sense of the body. I did The Beaux Stratagem a few years ago and we had a trough around the stage with decaying matter in it so it certainly felt less antiseptic. SP: How do you get the actors to bring the play to life? MWD: I have a method of relating to the text which involves the actors giving talks. I don’t have the holy writ as far as meaning, so I get the actors to give short talks on specific subjects which are relevant to the play. An actor might talk about birth and death rates, or the cost of everyday living. They become experts on that side of the production. SP: What attracted you to The Provok’d Wife? MWD: It’s a very funny play, and the depth, the richness of the characters is exciting. It has the famous drag scene where Brute dresses up as a woman. It has Lady Fanciful, who is a female fop. Then it has these two gender-based relationships, so it is both a female buddy movie and a male buddy movie. You also have a “below stairs” relationship between Madamoiselle and Razor. It’s a sexy piece. It’s less arch then Congreve, more urban than Farquhar. It’s jam packed with sharp and witty writing. SP: What did The Provok’d Wife say about morality in its day? MWD: In its day, there were no divorce laws, so part of what it was talking about was the relationship between marriage and money. Women weren’t allowed to divorce so questions about morality and how you should behave when you are trapped – if your husband is brutish – were a live issue. SP: Is it relevant today when divorce is common? MWD: We have to find what the social equivalents are nowadays. Part of its relevance was asking how to cope with straight-jacketed circumstances. It seems to me we’re all in various straight-jackets of custom and behavior, and we face temptation. SP: What do you make of the rather ambiguous ending for the relationships in the play? MWD: The characters have been through this chastening experience, and Vanbrugh was too sophisticated to write a fairy tale ending. SP: He wasn’t ready to promise happiness … MWD: Happiness is fragile. We whip up to a conclusion, but that conclusion is tinged with caveats. Shari Perkins is a first-year dramaturgy student in the A.R.T./MXAT School Institute for Advanced Theatre Training.