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Arnold School Drama Group based
in Blackpool.
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Rutherford
& Son by Githa Sowerby [Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester 2005] |
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| Rutherford
& Son
(Royal Exchange, Manchester Opened 19 January 2005)...Richard) |
Rutherford and Son
Published
Wednesday 2 February 2005
Loyalty, betrayal and filial ingratitude are all examined in Githa
Sowerby’s powerful observation of industrial society in
Britain in 1912. Sarah Frankcom’s welcome revival of this
rarely performed work affords a glimmer of the exciting aftermath of
the industrial revolution, when new money spawned a new class system
and the evolving women’s suffrage movement posed questions
about the repercussions facing women who made a stand.
Set in the north east home of Rutherford, the autocratic owner of a
glass factory, it was written out of bitter, personal experience by
Sowerby, whose own family owned a glassworks and it smacks of
authenticity.
Maurice Roeves is ideal casting as the domineering Rutherford.
It’s a marathon role, which veers from towering rage to
quiet, steely manipulation and he handles the contrasts - if not the
accent - adroitly.
Rutherford’s children are less enamoured of his rule of iron
than his workers and Maxine Peake is particularly strong as Janet, his
rebellious daughter who is at her best when faced with the dilemma of
how to cope after the grand gesture and there’s a sound
performance from Antony Byrne as her beloved Martin.
Daniel Brocklebank is John Rutherford, who has to escape to survive,
while there’s a quiet strength in Christine
Bottomley’s performance as his wife Mary. It is a great pity
that the lack of convincing accents marred an otherwise fine production
with sterling performances.
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Cast:
Maurice Roeves, Maxine Peake, Christine Bottomley, Daniel Brocklebank,
Dinah Stabb, Jonas Armstrong, Antony Byrne, Joan Kempson
Director:
Sarah Frankcom
Design:
Simon Daw
Sound:
Steve Brown
Lighting:
Hartley TA Kemp
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Rutherford
and Son By Githa Sowerby - Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester 2005
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| Review
by David Chadderton (2005) |
Githa
Sowerby's play of 1912, set in the dysfunctional family home of a
factory owner at the turn of the century, occupied one of the positions
in the National Theatre's top one hundred plays of the century
alongside other plays from the same period with similar themes, such as
John Galsworthy's Strife, Stanley Houghton's Hindle Wakes and Harold
Brighouse's Hobson's Choice. The main difference with this play is that
it was written by a woman; in fact the anarchist leader Emma Goldman
wrote in 1914 that 'until the author of Rutherford and Son made her
appearance, no country had produced a single woman dramatist of note.'
Rutherford (like Sowerby's father) owns a glassmaking factory that he
inherited from his father. He has put his whole life into running the
business, which he intends to pass down to his sons to run after him,
but his children see both him and the business as dark, repressive
shadows that they want to break free of to make their own lives. By the
end of the play, Rutherford has driven away his two sons and his
daughter, but he gains something unexpected to take their place at the
very end. Sowerby cleverly presents a society filled with conflict -
between generations, between genders and between classes - without
really commenting on it or drifting into too much controversy, unlike
Ibsen who had only died six years earlier and whose plays were still
considered offensive by many people.
Maurice Roëves plays a very sympathetic Rutherford - he does
not appear to be the evil tyrant he is portrayed by his family as
before his first entrance. He believes he has done everything he could
to keep the family business going and to provide for and educate his
family to leave them with a thriving business and a high social status
after he has gone. He does not see the cost of this to his children -
in fact, he does not believe that the children are his responsibility
until they are old enough to be trained up for the business. His oldest
son Richard (Jonas
Armstrong), whom he has discarded as of no use to the
business, has joined the church and champions the cause of one of his
father's former employees whom he has sacked for stealing. His younger
son John (Daniel Brocklebank) has tried and failed to survive on his
own with his wife and child and returned to his father's house. His
daughter Janet (Maxine Peake) is single in her mid-thirties because she
has kept house for Rutherford and consequently hardly met anyone
outside her immediate family, and she finally breaches a class barrier
by beginning a relationship with one of her father's workers.
Out of the actors, Antony Byrne certainly stands out as Martin,
Rutherford's factory manager and loyal employee of twenty-five years.
His character is at the heart of many of the major turning points in
the plot, despite his powerlessness, and he is very natural and
sympathetic in the part. Roëves as Rutherford is very relaxed
and witty in the part; he does not come across as the monster he is
portrayed as by others, but then this is partly because Sowerby has
given him the chance to justify his point of view, making him a much
more rounded character than similar roles in other plays of this type.
Brocklebank brings out a lot of the humour in the part of John,
portraying him a lot of the time as a rather pathetic, spoilt child.
However overall, the production comes over as being rather dull.
Despite some funny moments and some unexpected plot twists, there are
also quite a few parts that drag a bit. Some speeches, particularly
from some of the female characters, seem very long and drawn out and
are put over with forced emotion that does not seem natural or
justified. This is a very long play and this production struggles to
hold the attention, but there is a great deal of merit in the play's
look at how Victorian and Edwardian values were starting to crumble in
the years leading up to the First World War.
"Rutherford & Son" runs until 19 February 2005
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