ABSTRACT
Renaissance Theatre continued its 1925 celebration of the tercentenary of Fletcher’s death with productions of Rule a Wife and Have a Wife and The Wild-Goose Chase. This chapter examines how these two comedies foreground play-acting and performance as instruments of power and control, in both courtship and post-marital relations. In 1925, the reviewers enjoyed Rule a Wife much more than Wild-Goose Chase, but by tracking backwards and forwards to look at other productions of the latter, in 1904–1912 and 2009–2011, the chapter concludes that its performance potential is equally strong.
