Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Githa Sowerby’

Rutherford and Son

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on July 26, 2019| Leave a Comment »

This 1912 play was last seen at the NT 25 years ago, in a production by Katie Mitchell (before she went on to deconstruct and destroy plays!). Since then, it’s been named one of the 100 most influential plays of the 20th Century, and its easy to see why. It must have been shocking to see a prominent industrialist portrayed as a bully on stage over 100 years ago.

John Rutherford owns a glassworks in the industrial North East. Though we’re not explicitly told, he appears to be a widower, living with and looked after by his sister Ann and his spinster daughter Janet. His children have been a big disappointment to him. Richard has become a curate and John Junior, who he hoped would take over the business, has married beneath him and shows no interest in the family firm, though he has returned home to try and sell his father an invention. John thinks he’s entitled to be given it after spending a small fortune on John Junior’s education at Harrow. As the play unfolds he belittles Richard, sends John Junior and Janet away and manipulates John Junior’s wife Mary into involving him in bringing up his grandson.

Sowerby was the daughter of a North East glass manufacturer, so this may be wholly or partly biographical. In any event, the play was brave. It was first attributed to a writer with initials, so the sex was ambiguous and widely assumed to be a man. After all, there weren’t any female playwrights. The first act is a bit slow, and I’m not sure if this is the writing or the production, but it gains pace after the interval. Polly Findlay’s production, with designs by Lizzie Clachan, has great authenticity, with atmosphere created by rain and the movement of the house in which they live, plus a group of female voices singing folk inspired songs a capella.

Roger Allam is brilliant as Rutherford, commanding the stage as well as his family. Sam Troughton, Justine Mitchell and Harry Hepple are excellent as the three siblings who have grown into such different people. Joe Armstrong is great as Rutherford’s right hand man and Barbara Marten is superb as the ice cold uber conventional sister Ann. Lovely performances all round.

Good to see it again, in as fine a production as you could wish for.

Read Full Post »

The Stepmother

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 16, 2013| 1 Comment »

Githa Sowerby is an early 20th century female playwright you may never have heard of, but two of her plays have just opened. The first, Rutherford & Son was produced at the NT in 1994 (directed by Katie Mitchell, before she became a born again deconstructionist) and it was brilliant. It has just been revived by Northern Broadsides and is on tour, coming to The Rose in Kingston in March. When it was produced at The Royal Court in 1912 it was credited to K G Sowerby as they thought it would be panned if it was known to be by a woman. It was a big success, but for some reason she wasn’t very prolific (4 plays?) and this play came twelve years later. Based on the two plays, she seems to me to have been streets ahead of contemporaries like Shaw. This is a superb play.

The beginning of the story is unusual, even unlikely. When a woman dies, her 17-year old companion Lois is taken in by the woman’s brother and aunt. Lois proves to be the beneficiary of the will and brother Eustace goes about taking financial control and indeed marrying her, so she becomes stepmother to his two daughters. He’s a real loser and Lois ends up as wife, mother and breadwinner, though the marriage is far from happy. She sets up a successful dressmaking business and develops a relationship with neighbour Peter.

The second act moves us forward ten years. Monica, one of her stepdaughters, wants to marry, but her intended’s father (a family friend with whom Eustace has clashed) insists on a dowry. At this point, the true financial picture emerges and Eustace is revealed as devious, manipulative and heartless. A complex series of events unfolds as the futures of Eustace, Lois and Monica are determined.

This is such a cleverly structured, well written play. It must have been very brave to tackle these issues at that time. It’s brilliant storytelling and it’s never predictable. Acts 2 & 3 (the fast-paced second half) are dramatic masterpieces. The audience was gasping and audibly commenting in outrage as facts are revealed, such is the intensity of the drama. Sam Walters staging is masterly. It’s a while since I was at the Orange Tree Theatre and I’d almost forgotten how involved you become in this in-the-round (well, square) space in such close proximity to the action.

Christopher Ravenscroft was simply brilliant as Eustace; I was half expecting someone to leave the audience and give him a slap, such was the realism of his interpretation. Katie McGuinness was just as good as Lois, handling the emotionality of the role with great delicacy. There were lovely performances in the smaller roles of the adult stepdaughters from Jennifer Higham and Emily Tucker and a delightful cameo from Alan Morrisey as Monica’s intended, Cyril.

This is a deeply satisfying and unmissable evening. It’s such a good play, you will be astonished that it had only one performance when it was written and has not been seen again until this production. Now I can’t wait to revisit Rutherford & Son in five weeks time. Please tell me there are more Sowerby plays to be unearthed.

You have only three weeks left to see this neglected masterpiece.

 

Read Full Post »