Star of stage & screen Kara Tointon is heading up the cast in a new touring version of W Somerset Maugham’s subversive comedy, The Constant Wife. Reimagined for the modern era by Laura Wade, the fast-paced and witty Royal Shakespeare Company production is returning to the Midlands next month.

Kara spoke to What’s On about stepping into the lead role of Constance, a woman who, when faced with her husband’s audacious infidelity, chooses to reinvent her life on her own terms…

A sparkling new production of W Somerset Maugham’s play The Constant Wife has embarked on a national tour, featuring lavish sets, witty dialogue, and an original soundtrack by jazz artist Jamie Cullum. Strictly winner and star of Mr Selfridge and EastEnders, Kara Tointon, will take the lead role when the production visits the region in April.

“Constance [Middleton] has been married for 15 years,” says Kara, in talking about her character. “She loves her life, she loves her husband, she has a daughter who’s 14 years old. She’s just dropped her daughter to boarding school for the first time - so it’s a big day in her life - and she comes back to find her husband on the chaise lounge with her best friend. The play follows the aftermath of this massive, life-changing event, and how Constance deals with it - which is in a very unusual way.

“I’m not going to spoil anything, but you’ll leave with food for thought and lots of fruitful conversation, I’m sure!

“Constance is witty, fast, and chooses to look at life from a birds-eye view and make decisions in a fantastic way. There’s a lot of love in this household, a lot of love between her and her husband - so that makes it not ‘black and white’ - and you hope at the end that they find a way through.”

The production began its life last year, at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. It was helmed by the RSC’s co-artistic director, Tamara Harvey, and adapted by Laura Wade. While the show is freshly spruced-up for its national tour, the play itself is celebrating a centenary.

“It’s set exactly 100 years ago this year,” Kara explains. “It was written by Somerset Maugham in 1926 and performed in 1927. Laura Wade has dissected it and changed it slightly and brought it up for a modern audience. Although we’ve set it in 1926, it does feel like it could be today - it’s very fresh and fast-paced. With Tamara - her and Laura go way back and are the best of friends, actually - to be directed by her has been an amazing experience. I’m feeling really fortunate and lucky to be surrounded with amazing actors and a great team of people - I’m relishing every minute.

“I’m playing someone [in Constance] who I’d love to be more like, and that’s always fun. And I’d love to have Laura’s brain to write things - but getting to say her words is good enough!”

With the play being set in the high-class elegance of the 1920s, the costumes - particularly those worn by Constance - are suitably sumptuous.

“With the RSC, everything’s bespoke-ly, beautifully made. The materials are like pieces of artwork in themselves. This shirt that I’ve got, the way it’s been designed - it’s pretty phenomenal. I’ve had one new dress made for this as well, and that’s quite an exciting thing - seeing how they do it is really cool.”

The set design matches the elegance of the costumes - unsurprisingly, as Constance begins to make a name for herself as an interior designer. The set also changes as the  story jumps through time, at one point flashing back to Constance discovering her husband’s infidelity, and at another hopping forwards to the time when she’s in her element, undertaking her new job.

“This is the late 20s going to the 30s. Going from the Victorian interior design into this is such a massive shift. It blows my mind, that departure from the old cozy to this very new design. It’s fascinating, really. But it’s cool to see how the set changes. It’s very cleverly done.”

Kara has joined the production for its 2026 tour, and life on the road brings its own benefits and challenges.

“I kind of love it. I’ve got children now, so there’s a degree of juggling, like there always is in this mad job that we do, where you never know what you’ll be doing next, or where you’ll be. It’s making that work properly for my children, which I manage to do, but I do love visiting different towns. I mean, you never really get to do that in life. I’m going back to a few places now that I’ve been to before, and that’s quite nice.

“Going to each theatre brings about a new challenge. By the end of a week, you’ve got used to the set-up and the way the sound reverberates, and what you need to do to ‘feel’ the space. Then you go to a completely different theatre, and you have to get used to the new one. That brings about an interesting challenge each week, but that’s what touring is, and it’s great. I love it.”

The tour rounds off in an unusual setting - aboard a transatlantic cruise liner, which will be a new experience for Kara.

“It’s kind of a mad way to finish! We finish on May the 16th, and then, a couple of weeks later, we fly to New York and come back on the Queen Mary 2. It’s going to be quite a thing to do! And once we get on, we don’t get off - it’s not like a cruise where you dip into the Caribbean. You get on and then you get off in Southampton. So that will be really different!”

In the meantime, the production will remain landlocked, visiting Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn in April.

“The Constant Wife is a lovely, short, sweet, to-the-point comedy. The dynamics in that family - the funniness between the mother and the sisters, and the husband - I think people will find really amusing and warm. Constance herself is intelligent, witty, quick, comical, and everyone around her too, in equal measure. It’s just a lovely night at the theatre - you can’t go wrong!”

The Constant Wife shows at Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, from Tuesday 7 to Saturday 11 April.

By Jessica Clixby