ARTicles vol. 3 i.1a: Welcome: The Provok’d Wife

Dear Friends, Welcome to The Provok’d Wife, a production that, appropriately for the opening of a new season, is a first for the A.R.T. We’re bringing the work of British director Mark Wing-Davey to you for the first time, and also presenting the first Restoration Comedy in the A.R.T.’s twenty-five year history. The restoration of the monarchy in 1660, after an interregnum of some eleven years, brought about a revolution in the English drama. Until the theatres were closed during the Civil War of the 1640s, playwrights had tended to write on heroic, historical, or classical themes, and the English stage was populated with characters from antiquity (such as Marlowe’s Didoor Shakespeare’s Caesar), folklore and literature (Titania, Petruchio), or the chronicles (Hamlet, Richard III.) Now for the first time, audiences were confronted with representations of themselves – the citizens of London – engaged in familiar, if exaggerated, behavior, and speaking not high-flown verse, but the everyday talk of the salon and the street (Ezra Pound once observed that every literary revolution involves a movement towards the current vernacular.) City comedies reigned supreme, and playwrights vied to invent the most outrageous, original, and entertaining stories that held a mirror up to the fashions and appetites of the swelling bourgeoisie. This new theatrical realism was augmented by advances in set and lighting design that allowed the scene to turn effortlessly from the Brutes’ drawing room to the shadows of St. James’ Park, and by the most startling innovation of all – the arrival of the first actresses to the English stage. It is hard for us to imagine the excitement of those extraordinary decades, when every night brought a new play and a new diva, and where, for all walks of London life, the theatre was the only place to be. Meanwhile, in our own day, the A.R.T. is undergoing a revolution of its own. Only five weeks after the opening of The Provok’d Wife, we’ll be unveiling a sensational new theatre right in the heart of Harvard Square – the Zero Arrow Theatre (at the intersection of Arrow Street and Mass. Ave.) Flexible and intimate, Zero Arrow will allow us to present more theatre in more styles than ever before. We look forward to welcoming you to our vibrant and inspirational new space. With best wishes, Robert Woodruff Artistic Director Robert J. Orchard Executive Director Gideon Lester Associate Artistic Director