In his best-known work, La Ronde, Arthur Schnitzler explored how the dominant person in one sexual relationship can be, simultaneously, the lackey in another. Far and Wide takes a broader social view, showing how a wife's infidelity (or even the hint of it) can be so much more of a scandal than her husband's habitual bits on the side. Appropriately for the social set depicted, it's all played as high comedy, sobering up just long enough for seemingly inconsequential events to become tragic. Jonathan Bank's staging of "Das Weite Land" boasts two strong leads in the effortlessly congenial Hans Tester and the delicately tormented Lisa Bostnar, but the supporting cast prove uneven, as is the tone (one scene a in a mountainside hotel teeters perilously close to bad slapstick). As such, Far and Wide proves a long sit, intriguing but only fitfully engaging, with Vicki R. Davis' arid set design adding little of visual interest during the dull patches.
