Loading Events

« All Events

Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are

24 October @ 7.30pm to 8.45pm

Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Road
Oxford, OX2 6GG
View Venue Website


About Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are

Who writes women’s stories, and at what cost? 

Written in the revolutionary decade of the 1790s, Elizabeth Inchbald’s comedy places women at the centre of a changing society. Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are exposes the tension between female autonomy and the idealism, nostalgia, and expectations imposed by the men determined to shape their futures.

As old values clash with new ways of thinking, Inchbald’s characters navigate love, marriage, and independence in a world that insists on defining them before they can define themselves. What unfolds is a play that is witty, subversive, and strikingly modern.

Revived for today by Creation Theatre and the Orange Tree Theatre, this script-in-hand performance of Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are reminds us that debates around gender, power, and choice are anything but historical. Bold, playful and incisive, this is a comedy with teeth…and a past that speaks directly to the present. 


Tickets

Please see important booking information below.


Booking information

Ticket prices:

Adult – £11.00

Student – £10.00

Tickets are subject to a transaction fee

Dates & times:

Saturday 24 October 2026 at 7.00pm

Running time:

1 hour 15 minutes with no interval

Location:

Theatre

Age guidance: 

12+

Good to know:

A post-show talk of 15 to 20 minutes will take place in the auditorium following a short break.