The Country Wife has portrays a classic 'libertine' figure so it's quite interesting to give it an Asian background. I would have thought that that kind of culture is against a lot of their religious beliefs. Does this help to give you your modern spin? Lawrence: Yes - because libertinism only exists within its opposite, so the context that we've found is identical to that which we found in the Wycherley play.  | | Lawrence Till |
You have to have a restriction within the social morality and the relationships between those men and women, so that a person coming in can smash it. So the restrictive nature of religious beliefs is exactly the same. A central character comes in and says - you don't need to be like this anymore - we can liberate these women in this way. It's a slightly anarchic romp really. It's a series of 20-something young people falling in and out of love and trying to get one over on their mates It sounds a fascinating take, because at the time there were the social restrictions to freethinking - in the sexual sense, and this is looking at some modern restrictions. Lawrence: Yes - it's finding an equivalent that makes sense to people now because the whole nature of women being chaperoned or the whole nature of arranged marriages where women had dowerys - we don't have as much of that now as they did in that part of the 18th century. So it's very relevant to today. Does it have a contemporary setting as well? Lawrence: It's not a completely contemporary setting, but it's a modern setting. That's the best way to describe it! And of course - the panto is back! Lawrence: Yes - it's family friendly and exciting. Again it's a piece of work that you hope will appeal to large numbers of people. We have been closed for two years so people may have found alternatives but I would urge them to come back because it's something that Watford does very well. If you want a family friendly traditional pantomime in a beautiful environment then Watford is the place to come! | 
