Former Christ’s Hospital pupil Susannah Fielding returns to West Sussex this month, playing Margery Pinchwife in Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of The Country Wife
IT’S not hard to imagine how Susannah Fielding won her latest role in Chichester Festival Theatre’s revival of William Wycherley’s Restoration comedy The Country Wife. If anyone is equipped to offer a fresh take on the 17th century tale of a randy rake and his nefarious means of seduction, it’s the 32-year-old, who excels in unexpected interpretations of well-trodden parts. What other actor has thought to imagine Portia from The Merchant of Venice as a vacant, blonde-wigged Valley Girl, as she did in her award-winning turn in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Las Vegas-set 2014 production? “I feel female actors have a huge responsibility to bring depth to characters that may not have been given a real voice before,” she comments.
True to form, Susannah’s version of Margery Pinchwife – the eponymous wife of the play’s title – will be a living, breathing woman and not the dumb caricature of tradition. “Margery is sometimes played as stupid but I think she’s naïve and certainly she’s much more cunning than she initially seems. She’s hungry for life – which most young women are.” Director Jonathan Munby’s production will be set in contemporary times and Susannah thinks the bawdy play, which was banned for a time due to its explicit content, still has the potential to shock modern audiences. “People were much more sexually free at the time it was written but we’ve been through many periods since when that wasn’t the case – and especially for women. It will be interesting to see how audiences react today.”
Bu hikaye Sussex Life dergisinin June 2018 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Sussex Life dergisinin June 2018 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
TAKE YOUR TIME
Dean Edwards’ new cookbook features delectable recipes that you can slow cook or stick in the oven. Here’s a selection of the best
Decorative art
Not simply functional, treat your walls like an extension of your personality
ON THE FRONT FOOT
The rugby legend took the reins at Sussex County Cricket Club in 2017, rekindling his love for a sport that first won his heart on the village cricket fields of North Yorkshire
NAKED AMBITION
In the 1980s, Christine and Jennifer Binnie partied with Boy George and Marilyn and bared all as performance art collective The Neo-Naturists. Now they are working together to gain the recognition they feel they deserve
ROCKET MAN
Astronaut Tim Peake has come a long way since growing up in Westbourne and attending Chichester High School for Boys: 248 miles above Earth, to be precise. But, he says, life on the International Space Station has a lot in common with family caravanning holidays
Revolution man
Lewes’ most famous resident Thomas Paine may be the greatest propagandist who ever lived. But how did a humble customs and excise officer ignite the touchpaper for revolution in not one but two countries?
THE DIARY
17 exciting things to do this month in East and West Sussex
All in a day's work
Meet Tim Dummer, who has helped keep Midhurst’s Cowdray Estate shipshape for an impressive five decades
My favourite Sussex
Bruce Fogle is an author and a vet with a practice in London who has lived in West Sussex with his wife, the actress Julia Foster, since 1989. He recently became president of RSPCA Mount Noddy near Chichester
10 OF THE BEST Meat-free restaurants in Brighton and Hove
Brighton is often rated one of the most vegan-friendly cities in the UK. What these restaurants prove is that plant-based food doesn’t have to be puritanical – at all of these places you’ll find big flavours and a desire to push the envelope
