Three families married on the same day in the same chapel gather to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. The celebrations are short lived, however, when they discover the vicar wasn’t licensed and they aren't actually married!
J B Priestley’s 1938 play “When we are Married” is a true comedy classic which targets the class privilege, smug pomposity, and complacent hypocrisy of the Edwardian middle classes with farcical aplomb. Set in Bradford, Yorkshire, three couples who were all married at the same chapel on the same day meet to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary only to discover that they have never been legally married as the parson was unlicensed.
This shock revelation ensures the drama quickly descends into comic chaos and confusion as the horror and embarrassment leads to a hilarious re-evaluation of their marriages placing the institution itself under the microscope.
The play is a gift for Barrie Rutter’s Northern Broadsides theatre company which specializes in delivering Shakespeare, European, and English Classic plays in northern voices so that productions are always noted for their “distinctive northern voice, strong musicality, and clear narrative journey.” Indeed, the company will be celebrating its own silver anniversary very soon as it was first established by Rutter in 1992 as a strong antidote to “velvet theatre.”
Inspired to start his own theatrical journey by his English teacher who decided he had “the gob for it”, Rutter not only directs this production but also stars as the tipsy local photographer Henry Ormonroyd; a role quite thoroughly relished judging by his drunken swaying and staggering around the stage.
The production boasts a range of consistently fine performances with Adrian Hood suitably smug and pompous as the dreary windbag Albert Parker, Mark Stratton visibly squirming as Joe Helliwell when caught out with Lottie Grady, Kate Anthony fiercely formidable as the Gorgon-like Clara Soppit, and Geraldine Fitzgerald suitably stoic as the desperately trying to smile hostess Maria Helliwell.
The two standout performances of the evening, however, are by Steve Huison as the severely henpecked husband Herbert Soppit and Sue Devaney as the submissive Annie Parker. The funniest scenes in the play are when these two long-oppressed characters finally turn upon their spouses and put them firmly in their place. The long list of Albert Parker’s failings as a husband from being dull, dreary, stingy and simply just not fun are delivered by Devaney with such dry, deadpan humour that the scene provokes the biggest laugh of the evening.
There are some additional fine comic turns in the supporting roles; notably Kat-Rose Martin as the perky parlourmaid Ruby and Luke Adamson as the gleeful Gerald Forbes who first breaks the news of the unauthorized marriages.
The only weakness of the play, however, is that after allowing all the possibilities of liberation from the shackles of marriage for each of his characters, these opportunities are all quickly closed down by the capitulation to the conventional “happy ending”, reaffirming the status quo with compromise and surrender the order of the day.
It is a shame that the implications of their initial release were not pursued or explored further, but in spite of this, it is undeniably a fun night out at the theatre with Northern Broadsides delivering a sharp comedy with perfect timing and wonderful execution.
When We Are Married is at the Rose Theatre until October 15, for tickets visit rosetheatrekingston.org
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