William Wycherly’s Country wife play and its BBC version, which Lester Jensen published on YouTube, show the cultural, societal, historical, and other behaviors that were present during the early restoration era. The play and its film adoption explore the themes sexual relations in the society. Both the play and film are comedies of manners that highlight how people pretend to be what they are not. The two materials use aspects such as costumes and performance to explore some of the ills of society in a satirical and humorous way to highlight the pretenses and hypocrisies of individuals.

One of the standout comparisons of both the play and video is the performance of the characters. The main characters such as Harry Horner and Margery Pinchwife deliver a dazzling performance that not only manages to entertain the audience but also examines anti-puritan and aristocratic notions utilizing a sexually explicit content. An instance, of Horner’s performance, can be seen in act I scene i. During this scene, he lies to the men from the middle-class of London that he is impotent. Additionally, in the China scene where he liaises with Sir Jasper Fidget’s wife, he uses obscene language and lies to divert the attention of Fidget about what is happening (Wycherley, 1997). The issue unveils in the fourth Act’s third scene. Similarly, Margery provides exceptional performances when she disguises herself as a boy and when she writes a love letter to Horner while lying to her husband that it is informing him to stay away from her. The performance of the play is also undertaken by both female and male actors in both the video and the text, something that was not common during the Elizabethan period.

Additionally, the costumes of the play and movie adoption also show a comparison of the two materials. The actors in both the text and video are seen to wear clothing that can be associated with the restoration era. Additionally, both the men and women in the film have curly and bushy hair showing the trend of the time when the play was written. The men are often dressed in white shirts with protruding collars, and long cloaks as well as square-toed shoes that were high-heeled (Jensen, 2017). On the other hand, women wore full satin skirts and raised one could see a petticoat underneath. The dresses also had slit sleeves that exposed their bare arms. Moreover, both male and female actors’ theater attires were tied using several ribbons.