Using a theme of chess throughout a production is not a new idea, nor is it a poor choice. And why is that? How can so many productions use such a common theme and yet still work for all of them? Chess wonderfully mirrors society's constantly changing values, structures, and rankings, and this is a universal theme that stretches beyond a single play or culture, for that matter. A high school history teacher uses the game of chess to teach European history. This gives him the opportunity to explain an event to his students in more than one aspect of history. Society is made up of rules and moral codes that it expects all members to obey, and throughout history, one can find specific eras where the scrutiny of the follow-through of those rules is much stronger. The Restoration theatre and the Country Wife are set in one of these such times, and so fits perfectly with the strict guidelines of the world of chess.
"Chess: Just a game, or rules of society?." Curriculum Review 39.5 (2000): 8. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 8 Mar. 2011.
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