THE CHEERFUL CAPTIVE

......is Hennie Stacpole, married twenty one years to Laurence, mother of Clare, 19, and Will, 10, and mistress of a smoothly run household in Connecticut in which Agnes carries on a silent warfare with Gino as each tries to sabotage the other's domestic duties. Suddenly aware of her ""underdone"" life, Hennie is overtaken with energy, unease, glee and a desire for change, and a solo hideout on Long Island proves too lonely, although she does manage to disrupt a few lives there. Home again, there is the question of Clare's marriage to young Joseph Wood, of a class for tile-making, of money to be raised for the school washroom -- and of Edward Latham, a bachelor in Laurence's bank. Her flightiness causes Will to run away, Clare to elope and Agnes to seek other employers and her euphoria comes to an end when she wakes to the fact (and is abetted by Agnes' and Gino's enmity) Latham is not for her. Well-groomed and agile, these are the erratic gestures of a season of discontent which make for a gay and pleasing comedy of marriage and middle-age.