R-E-S-P-E-C-TLest we forget, it's fifty years since the death of Lancashire playwright Harold Brighouse. Brighouse was prolific in the second decade of the twentieth century when the influence of Irish (principally by Sean O'Casey and J M Synge) realism was having a decisive effect on Drama. The catalyst was a woman administrator, Anne Horniman. Horniman was a wealthy woman who had seen in Germany the importance of a subsidised repertory theatre and began funding similar season in England (beginning in 1894 and including the first commercial staging of a play by Bernard Shaw). Horniman had been secretary to William Butler Yeats at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin during that theatre's creative boom and in 1908 she bought her own theatre in Manchester where, under her guidance, a British realist movement began. This so-called 'Manchester School' produced realistic plays of provincial life of which Brighouse was one of the most popular and successful writers. Horniman's ethos re-emerged with another Manchester-based, and also woman lead, company in Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop where the lineage continued through to the more famous mid twentieth century 'angry' school where the provincial potboilers relocated to the capital city.
Brighouse's most enduring play is Hobson's Choice, a genial comedy that subtly delivered social message. It has been a staple with English repertory companies and enough of a 'classic' for Laurence Olivier to include in the 1964 National Theatre seasons (sandwiched between Hamlet and The Master Builder) at the Old Vic pending the opening the 'official' theatre at London's SouthBank. The Hobson on that occasion, Michael Redgrave*, considering that "Brighouse's play is a Lancashire comedy, as much of its time and place as the Neapolitan comedies of Eduardo De Filippo. Its humour lies, to a large extent, in its observations of status."
Widower Henry Horatio Hobson (Ian Rooney) makes a good living as a boot maker. He saves money by having his three unmarried daughters carry out the duties of running his shop and household. The savviest of the three, Maggie (Caroline Lloyd) is thirty, unmarried and destined to be Hobson's unofficial house and shop keeper after the younger and, by those long-gone standards, more weddable daughters Alice (Ami-Louise Sharpe) and Vickey (Kate Drougas) have been married off. The plot hinges on Maggie, who has other ideas, and her quick marriage to Hobson's shy but talented shoemaker Willie Mossop (Peter McTighe) and their establishment of a rival business nearly ruining her father's.
Redgrave was right, status and class consciousness run rife throughout the play but, interestingly to a modern audience, the most prejudicial characters Hobson's younger daughters, piteous little snobs aware of who is below them socially and making whoever that is aware of it. The upper class characters like Mrs Hepworth (Maggie Mandelert) are only too happy to reward nouse like Willie's and Maggie's and even strike a business deal with them. Brighouse even indulges in some soft social moralising (unlike his contemporary Shaw's overt tub-thumbing) in having Maggie energise the self-effacing Willie by showing him respect and making others do the same. The patriarchy of the play is archaic but the sentiment and decency of Maggie's behavior is cherishable.
What really matters though is that Hobson's Choice is among the great English comedies. The writing of the great wooing scene (one of the greatest comic love scenes to sit alongside those of Shakespeare, Congreve and Wilde) as the stern Maggie terrorises a marriage proposal out of Willie is pure gold! Maggie is a great part for a comic actress. A modest shrew, the unexpected way she turns events to her advantage and those she cares about is as well crafted ("built like an iron-girder" according to Michael Billington) as its plot. My first encounter with the play was a 1980 Melbourne Theatre Company production with the great June Jago (who must have been the other side of fifty but delivering an object lesson in playing comedy without mannerisms) as Maggie. Even in lesser hands the part still has rewards for the actor and audience. The genius of the part is in the writing, what Maggie comes out with during the play is outrageous, subverting as it does the sexual politics of the period. Lloyd's Maggie is a model of restraint and seems to give away nothing to her fellow characters while her resoluteness and supreme control is beamed to the audience. Her deliberately expressionless face only occasionally gives way to a raised eyebrow once in a while but, at the end of the play when her timid husband finally stands up for himself, a tiny smile radiates across her face. A very winning performance.
Maggie is the focus of the play but as her father Ian Rooney was cranky and then craggy perfection right up to the final confrontation with his rebellious daughters. Almost like a provincial King Lear, with Hobson demanding obedience from his three daughters and finding, after much grief, comfort from the one who gave him most trouble. Mounting a 'costume piece' is difficult, even for the most sophisticated professional company and getting a role like Hobson right consolidated the success of the production. As Willie McTighe orbits Maggie like a terrified puppy during the hilariously played proposal scene and throughout the play slowly reduces the character's nervousness and fluster (as well as the physical distance between himself and Maggie). The costumes themselves, particularly the women's, presumably the most difficult to procure, were splendid. "Hobson's demands a Lancashire accent," Redgrave also said, "something with a strong bite to it." Director Darren Mort half solves the problem of rehearsing so many actors into credible Lancastrians by altering the locale to Melbourne in 1880. Hobson is now an emigre in the colonies in 1852 with his daughters and apprentice Willie. Melbourne during the Gold Rush was a melting pot of migrated English all fusing and losing their accents into what would become the 'strine' of C J Dennis. So after nearly twenty years in Australia Hobson can have a strong 'regional' accent, Maggie, Vickey, Alice and Willie can have variations while the other characters contribute further variations to the cosmopolitan mix. The transportation worked quite well, Hobson's 'Chapel Street' address being a coincidence from the original location, while the other local references added to the enjoyment. Only the notion that Hobson producing clogs - a staple footwear for the mill-workers of Manchester but hardly well known in late 19th century Melbourne - when his business flounders seemed unlikely.
Not absolutely everything is sorted out in the production but for so competently and expertly mounting a historical play like this 3 Big Men Productions and Rehearsal Room have done wonders. Every character, however incidental, is cast from strength including some famous names from television like Ian Smith or Sean Scully (the son of the equally popular radio, television, film and theatre actor Margaret Christensen). Every scene is imaginatively produced, including the wedding scene where the theatre's original chapel window is revealed or the parlour piano and singing larrikins providing musical interludes added a further feeling of period detail. Cleverly the now mandatory warning about mobile phones was given by Maggie before the play begins. Even the programme has thoughtful historical notes about the period and customs (although it neglects to mention the author's name). Hobson's Choice is a play well worth seeing, especially in a dedicated and convincing production like this.
Hobson's Choice (1915) by Harold Brighouse Henry Horatio Hobson - Ian RooneyBrighouse's most enduring play is Hobson's Choice, a genial comedy that subtly delivered social message. It has been a staple with English repertory companies and enough of a 'classic' for Laurence Olivier to include in the 1964 National Theatre seasons (sandwiched between Hamlet and The Master Builder) at the Old Vic pending the opening the 'official' theatre at London's SouthBank. The Hobson on that occasion, Michael Redgrave*, considering that "Brighouse's play is a Lancashire comedy, as much of its time and place as the Neapolitan comedies of Eduardo De Filippo. Its humour lies, to a large extent, in its observations of status."
Widower Henry Horatio Hobson (Ian Rooney) makes a good living as a boot maker. He saves money by having his three unmarried daughters carry out the duties of running his shop and household. The savviest of the three, Maggie (Caroline Lloyd) is thirty, unmarried and destined to be Hobson's unofficial house and shop keeper after the younger and, by those long-gone standards, more weddable daughters Alice (Ami-Louise Sharpe) and Vickey (Kate Drougas) have been married off. The plot hinges on Maggie, who has other ideas, and her quick marriage to Hobson's shy but talented shoemaker Willie Mossop (Peter McTighe) and their establishment of a rival business nearly ruining her father's.
Redgrave was right, status and class consciousness run rife throughout the play but, interestingly to a modern audience, the most prejudicial characters Hobson's younger daughters, piteous little snobs aware of who is below them socially and making whoever that is aware of it. The upper class characters like Mrs Hepworth (Maggie Mandelert) are only too happy to reward nouse like Willie's and Maggie's and even strike a business deal with them. Brighouse even indulges in some soft social moralising (unlike his contemporary Shaw's overt tub-thumbing) in having Maggie energise the self-effacing Willie by showing him respect and making others do the same. The patriarchy of the play is archaic but the sentiment and decency of Maggie's behavior is cherishable.
What really matters though is that Hobson's Choice is among the great English comedies. The writing of the great wooing scene (one of the greatest comic love scenes to sit alongside those of Shakespeare, Congreve and Wilde) as the stern Maggie terrorises a marriage proposal out of Willie is pure gold! Maggie is a great part for a comic actress. A modest shrew, the unexpected way she turns events to her advantage and those she cares about is as well crafted ("built like an iron-girder" according to Michael Billington) as its plot. My first encounter with the play was a 1980 Melbourne Theatre Company production with the great June Jago (who must have been the other side of fifty but delivering an object lesson in playing comedy without mannerisms) as Maggie. Even in lesser hands the part still has rewards for the actor and audience. The genius of the part is in the writing, what Maggie comes out with during the play is outrageous, subverting as it does the sexual politics of the period. Lloyd's Maggie is a model of restraint and seems to give away nothing to her fellow characters while her resoluteness and supreme control is beamed to the audience. Her deliberately expressionless face only occasionally gives way to a raised eyebrow once in a while but, at the end of the play when her timid husband finally stands up for himself, a tiny smile radiates across her face. A very winning performance.
Maggie is the focus of the play but as her father Ian Rooney was cranky and then craggy perfection right up to the final confrontation with his rebellious daughters. Almost like a provincial King Lear, with Hobson demanding obedience from his three daughters and finding, after much grief, comfort from the one who gave him most trouble. Mounting a 'costume piece' is difficult, even for the most sophisticated professional company and getting a role like Hobson right consolidated the success of the production. As Willie McTighe orbits Maggie like a terrified puppy during the hilariously played proposal scene and throughout the play slowly reduces the character's nervousness and fluster (as well as the physical distance between himself and Maggie). The costumes themselves, particularly the women's, presumably the most difficult to procure, were splendid. "Hobson's demands a Lancashire accent," Redgrave also said, "something with a strong bite to it." Director Darren Mort half solves the problem of rehearsing so many actors into credible Lancastrians by altering the locale to Melbourne in 1880. Hobson is now an emigre in the colonies in 1852 with his daughters and apprentice Willie. Melbourne during the Gold Rush was a melting pot of migrated English all fusing and losing their accents into what would become the 'strine' of C J Dennis. So after nearly twenty years in Australia Hobson can have a strong 'regional' accent, Maggie, Vickey, Alice and Willie can have variations while the other characters contribute further variations to the cosmopolitan mix. The transportation worked quite well, Hobson's 'Chapel Street' address being a coincidence from the original location, while the other local references added to the enjoyment. Only the notion that Hobson producing clogs - a staple footwear for the mill-workers of Manchester but hardly well known in late 19th century Melbourne - when his business flounders seemed unlikely.
Not absolutely everything is sorted out in the production but for so competently and expertly mounting a historical play like this 3 Big Men Productions and Rehearsal Room have done wonders. Every character, however incidental, is cast from strength including some famous names from television like Ian Smith or Sean Scully (the son of the equally popular radio, television, film and theatre actor Margaret Christensen). Every scene is imaginatively produced, including the wedding scene where the theatre's original chapel window is revealed or the parlour piano and singing larrikins providing musical interludes added a further feeling of period detail. Cleverly the now mandatory warning about mobile phones was given by Maggie before the play begins. Even the programme has thoughtful historical notes about the period and customs (although it neglects to mention the author's name). Hobson's Choice is a play well worth seeing, especially in a dedicated and convincing production like this.
Maggie Hobson - Caroline Lloyd
Alice Hobson - Ami-Louise SharpeVickey Hobson - Kate Drougas
Willie Mossop - Peter McTighe
Tubby Wadlow - Michael CollinsAlbert Prosser - Ezra Bix
Freddy Beanstalk - Tobias Manderson-GalvinAda Figgins - Karla Hillam
Mrs Hepworth - Maggie MandelertJim Heeler - Sean Scully
Doctor McFarlane - Ian SmithDirector - Richard Sarell
Lighting - Simon Prentice
Design - Richard Sarell & Georgi Cahill
Set Design - Fiona Gollard
Costumes - Marj Miller
Musical direction - Ben Kiley
Chapel off Chapel, Prahran
29 May – 14 June 2008(130 minutes including 1 interval)
* in Michael Redgrave, In My Mind's Eye, An Autobiography. Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1974
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