The stern moralists who condemn Restoration comedy as merely vulgar should go and see the Brattle Theatre's production of Wycherley's "The Country Wife." They will not think the acted play less bawdy than the published play; but they might learn, in the two and a half hours of an excellent play excellently produced, that "The Country Wife" is more than merely crude.

That is the curious thing about Restoration comedy: like its era, it is a strange blend of the earthy and the refined. Amateur actors (and puritanical critics) in general catch only the earthy, or vulgar, spirit, missing the refinement which fires the whole.

It is this catching of the whole spirit of the comedy which makes the Brattle production so fine. Along with the plot, which depends exclusively on adultery for motive force, the audience is treated to a display of elegant costumes, elegant sets, and elegant epigrammatic wit.

Braver men than I have tried to summarize the plot of "The Country Wife" and failed. Suffice it to say that there are three parts to the story: the first concerns a young country-bred wife (Margery Pinchwife) who is trying to escape from the close confinement exercised by her aging roue husband (Pinchwife) into the gay, loose world of London society; the second is a triangle between Pinchwife's sister, the fop Sparkish, and the wit Harcourt; the third involves the bold and unquestionably piquant attempt of one Mr. Horner to pass himself off as recently castrated, in order to gain access (for purposes easily imagined) to the wives and daughters of unsuspecting friends and associates. How these plots are connected and what strategems are used by the various contestants (people in the seventeenth century were crafty beyond all measure) defy explanation.

Jan Farrand brings a healthy bounce to the part of Mrs. Pinchwife, the country wife who wants to live like a town lady (i.e. in sin); and Jerry Kilty, as the husband who locks her in her room every time he goes out, mixes a healthy fear of cuckoldry with a humorous appreciation of the same state in others, and even a whimsical resignation to his own eventual fate. Miss Farrand and Mr. Kilty, the former by her expert overplaying and the latter by his half whimsical and half pathetic air, squeeze the most out of two very good parts.

Cyril Ritchard, an import from England, who plays Sparkish the fop, achieves a success of a different kind. Sparkish could turn out no more than a fop, an elaborately dressed, self-conscious waver of lace handkerchiefs, but Mr. Ritchard manages by his impressive diction and equally impressive frame to give real color to Wycherley's essentially colorless character. His Sparkish is an excellent example of how a really fine actor can make something out of almost nothing.

Mr. Ritchard's wife, Madge Elliott, cannot do the same for the part of Alithea, betrothed of Sparkish and beloved of Harcourt. Alithea is an aberration on Wyncherley's part: she is a moral figure in a profoundly immoral play, and is completely out of place. No actress could have made Alithea seem natural in the rollicking atmosphere of "The Country Wife."

William Tregoe is good in the routine part of Harcourt, and Robert Fletcher likewise good as Horner, who has little to recommend himself as a character beyond the diabolic ingenuity of his scheme.

My sentimental favorite among the less important characters is Phillippa Bevans' performance as Lady Jasper Fidget, one of the ladies who partakes of Horner's favors. Miss Bevans brings an unexpected matronly air to the part of an adultress and delivers her lines with invincible good nature befitting her portly appearance. Like Mr. Ritchard she puts more into the part than Wycherley called for.

The acting of the supporting cast is uniformly excellent. I especially enjoyed Thayer David's gross portrayal of Sir Jasper Fidget, though Earl Montgomery, Bryant Holiday, Eleanor MacLean, Leslie Paul, Naomi Raphaelson, and Jeanne Tufts all perform well. Kenneth Scott was imperturbably droll, though silent, in the part of Balthazar, a little colored boy who attends Sparkish (in its zest for "business" the Brattle group created this role out of thin air).

Robert O'Hearn deserves special praise for his very attractive sets, and for his dancing and choreography of the incidental dances that fronted for several scene changes.

The costumes were excellent, especially the fantastic ones Robert Fletcher designed for Sparkish, which contributed no small amount to Mr. Ritchard's successful carrying off of that role.

Finally David Tutacv deserves high praise for his excellent direction, especially for his perservering search for interesting "business" not in the script, and for retaining the comic vitality of the original play.

I suggested at the beginning of this review that the stern moralists should see "The Country Wife"; by this I did not mean that the not-so-stern--and perhaps the immoral--should avoid it. Far from it. This is an almost perfect production of a very funny play; and the casual should attend it as much for entertainment as the serious for disabusement.