Word: fidgeting
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...writers from this period, and The Country Wife is one of his better plays, some say the best. The plot revolves around a professional rake named Horner, who with the help of his doctor, Quack, convinces the men of London society that he is impotent. Led by Sir Jaspar Fidget, these men of court eagerly dump their wives on Horner in the hopes that his "harmless" company will keep them away from young swains who would sooner cuckold a husband than look at one. Naturally, Horner spends the rest of the play leaping in and out of bed after...
...greed, made vulga by the artificial gentility which tries to hide them from view. What makes the country wife so refreshing is her total lack of artifice and her good-hearted gusto for sex and fun. Yet she too is a fool, just as Pinchwife and Sir Fidget are fools, just as the Ladies Fidget and Squeamish are hypocrites. There is no one at all who is admirable in the play, unless it be Alithea, but she is no innocent herself, deftly playing one suitor against another...
...supporting cast is also, by and large, excellent. Dan Strickler as Fidget is a perfectly dotty old lord (though he is upstaged by the pug Pekinese he carries onstage), and Peter Haydu shines as the mincing fop, Sparkish...
Moving on to the main course, Molochkov warns: "Do not eat with your knife. Never put the knife into your mouth." It is not done, he emphasizes, to "stare intently at those around you," and in polite gatherings, "don't fidget, don't whisper, don't stare intently at furniture, pictures and other objects." For the loquacious, he counsels "don't tell old stories, jokes and anecdotes"-and for the insecure, "don't be disappointed if you think you are being ignored." One dictum might be intended for KGB operatives doing cover duty...
...sticky, hot night, and several hundred people wait on hard wooden benches. Fireflies flicker, and on a small, lighted stage four country-suited musicians quietly fidget. In their midst stands an imposing figure dressed in white and wearing a broad-brimmed hat. "I once played the mandolin all the way from Fort Wayne to Nashville without stopping!" he thunders into a microphone. "Don't nobody think I can't play all night if I want to!" As the crowd cheers, the big man leans forward and madly strums the opening riffs to Orange Blossom Special. Says a woman...