Love is Just a Game

The Country Wife by William Wycherley deals with societal pressures and games. The characters of the show are all involved in a game of manipulation of emotions, almost a giant chess match. So, this production will be treated just as such in the manners, concepts, and designs, to create the feeling of a societal game of chess. According to Oxford Reference Online, chess is "a board game of strategic skill for two players, played on a chequered board on which each playing piece is moved according to precise rules. The object is to put the opponent's king under a direct attack from which escape is impossible (checkmate)."
In the Country Wife, each character has a different role in the game, dictated not by their actions, but how society forces them to act. For example, Horner plays the role of one of the Kings, because he maintains so much control over the other characters and is so vital to the continuation of the game. In the world of the play, rules are everything, but it is those who break them that keep a balance between the rules and what is desired.

"chess noun"  Oxford Dictionary of English. Edited by Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2010. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.  Central Washington University.  11 March 2011  <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t140.e0141910>