Theatre Review: The School for Wives - at Riverside Studios

The Flywheel theatre company are reviving the rep tradition by having five actors perform five different plays in five weeks. Their interpretation of Molière's classic is gaudy and hilarious. Even the lighting cues are funny!

It is fair to say that School for Wives isn't exactly an uncontroversial play. The plot basically boils down to "Women! Eh? You can't live with them, you can't easily groom them from the age of four and keep them imprisoned so they become perfect submissives."

Is the fear of cuckoldry funny? Is it OK to laugh at a jealous rage which leads to controlling behaviour? Should we find joy in the emotional torment of our characters?

Yes! Yes! And yes!

The cast squeeze every last drop of humour from the script, the direction is nimble, and the play has been edited down to a more manageable 75ish minutes (plus extra time for corpsing and applause).

A simply joyous production which left us grinning throughout.

You can see all their upcoming shows - which are very reasonably priced.

Pre-Show and Post-Show

I'm a believer in making the entire visit to the theatre a special experience. Riverside Studio, Hammersmith is a great venue with generous foyer space and more than adequate toilet provision. Not a given in London theatres!

The theatre programme is digital and provided via QR code. No £6 rip off for a booklet full of adverts here.

As we walked in, the cast were dotted around the stage an in the auditorium doing various bits of business which made for a jolly start.

Post curtain call there was a lovely speech from the cast thanking us for attending and letting us know about their future projects. Nothing wrong with a piece of shameless advertising to a captive audience 😄

Overall an excellent theatrical experience.