The Country Wife

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http://www.odyssey-productions.org

Harry Horner has a problem. His reputation as the "Lewdest fellow in town" means he isn't allowed anywhere near London's society women. So, he does what any reasonable man in a Restoration comedy would do: he circulates a rumor that a disastrous case of VD has rendered him a eunuch ... and a eunuch can do no harm to a lady's honor. News of Horner's misfortune spreads quickly and soon aristocratic husbands are lining up to employ him as their wives' "innocent" chaperone. In brilliant Restoration style, Wycherley takes us along Horner's wild adventure through the drawing rooms of fashionable London; teeming with fops, rakehells, mad men, trollops and hypocrites who are all fair game in this tart satire. As much as we would like to think we have evolved since the 17th Century, The Country Wife shows us too easily that the sexual politics of Horner's era have much in common with our own.