65th Production
The Provoked Wife
By Sir John Vanbrugh
3rd - 7th October 1967

Cast
Sir John Brute
Lady Brute
Belinda (her niece)
Lady Fanciful
Mademoiselle (her confidential maid)
Cornet
Heartfree
Constant
Lovewell
Footman
Lord Rake
Colonel Bully
Tavern Wench
Tailor
1st Watch
2nd Watch
3rd Watch
Constable
Justice of the Peace
Honest Joe
Razor
In the Tavern
Hedley Brown
Christine Williams
Beryl Rooney
Joan Brown
Mary Brown
Margaret Hague
Mike Bradley
Nigel Shaw
Evelyn Raby
Gerald Fillingham
Ron Tyson
David Mann
Marilynne Spavin
Gerald Fillingham
David Wilson
Harry Fletcher
Robert Bradshaw
Brian Lewis
David Elford
David Elford
David Mann
Brian Lewis
David Wilson
David Elford
Harry Fletcher
Evelyn Raby
Fay Hopper
Zoe Riby
Margaret Hague
Gerald Fillingham
Carol Peasgood
Robert Bradshaw
Production Team
Director
Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Managers
Lighting Designer
Lighting Operator
Sound Operator
Set Designer
Set Constructed by
Costumes
Costumes by
Wigs by
House Manager
Theatre Manager
Theatre Licensee
David Dalton
David Wilson
Marilynne Spavin
Alan Cressey
David Dalton
Allen Gittens
Chris Williams
Ivan Clayton
The Hospital Players
Phyllis Dadd
L. R. H. Nathan Ltd.
Nathanwigs Ltd.
Maureen Johnston
David Dalton
Glyn Roberts

Publicity
In 1690, Vanbrugh was arrested at Calais 'upon information received from a lady in Paris,' for travelling without a passport; he was presumably acting as an agent. Louis XIV eventually had Vanbrugh moved to the Bastille where he apparently led a not unpleasant life. He was allowed considerable freedom to come and go and, probably influenced by the French Theatres he was allowed to visit, he began to sketch out the comedy which was eventually to become 'The Provoked Wife.'
On his release from France, Vanbrugh settled down to playwriting. The first of his plays to be presented was 'The Relapse;' this was followed by an adaptation of an existing play which Vanbrugh entitled 'I Aesop.' He then completed 'The Provoked Wife,' which was produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre about 20th May, 1697, by Thomas Betterton, who also played the part of Sir John Brute.
Subsequent to 'The Provoked Wife,' although he collaborated with Congreve and others in the adaptation of French works, Vanbrugh the playwright gave way to Vanbrugh the architect. His last play, however, also promised to be his best but 'A Trip to London' was uncompleted at his death; Colley Cibber later took the remaining fragments for his play 'The Provoked Husband.'
Both 'The Relapse' and 'The Provoked Wife' came under severe attack from the puritan element of society at the time of their production. Dr. Blair said of 'The Provoked Wife' that it was 'a piece the indecencies of which ought to explode it out of all respectable society;' Charles James Fox, however, speaking in relation to the same play, said of Vanbrugh 'he was almost as great a genius as ever lived.'