RUTHERFORD AND SON by Githa Sowerby Salisbury Playhouse to 27 October
Salisbury
RUTHERFORD AND SON
By Githa Sowerby
Salisbury Playhouse To 27 October 2001
Runs 2hr 35min One interval
TICKETS 01722 320333
Review Timothy Ramsden 18 October
Nearly 90 years on, Sowerby's 1912 drama of family oppression stands triumphant.'Plain and lasting – that's the rule in this family.' A Tyneside house a century ago, the Rutherford home is cold and bleak. Its womenfolk sit isolated and tentative around the edges of its living-room.
Only old Rutherford (a silver-grey bearded Gareth Thomas, displaying the character's iron will, family pride and remorseless sense of being right) and Martin, his works manager of 25 years (Robert Willox), walk and talk easily here.
For Rutherford's heart is in the family glassmaking business, founded by his father and now under threat. All this is emphasised in Tim Meacock's set, which maroons the dark, comfortless house among piles of glistening and shattered glass shards. As Rutherford says, 'Being happy'll make no porridge.'
He destroys the life, love and creativity around him, an impact measured in his sour, devoted sister Ann (Katharine Barker). And he crushes both his sons, the vapid cleric Richard (Simeon Truby) and John (played by Martin Parr as an affected lounging lizard who seems unlikely as the inventor of a new formula that could save the family business).
Joanna Read's production begins stiffly, with thematically significant lines over-pointed instead of arising out of the situation. There's some dull blocking too. But Sowerby's superb dramaturgy, and understanding of her characters, soon takes wing. The prevailing iciness, underpinned by the sound of a clock ticking with metronome-like inhumanity, the thud of machinery and a cold wind howling, is varied by more intimate moments.
Significantly, one of these is Rutherford and Martin's talk before the manager's courting of 36 year old and ageing Janet Rutherford (Ruth Mitchell, fine as a human spirit teetering between rebellion and sacrifice) ruptures the men's relationship. Persuading Martin to give him John's secret formula, Rutherford's expansive confidence contrasts tellingly with Martin's conscientious hesitation.
Then there's the brief warmth between Janet and the newcomer to the household, John's wife Mary. Niamh Daly rises well to the chilling conclusion where she guarantees herself and her newborn son by trading the boy into the family business. Last cry, offstage, goes to the infant, whose future's just been secured in more than one sense.
Ann Rutherford: Katharine Barker
Mary Rutherford: Niamh Daly
Janet Rutherford: Ruth Mitchell
John Rutherford Junior: Martin Parr
Richard Rutherford: Simeon Truby
John Rutherford Senior: Gareth Thomas
Martin: Robert Wilcox
Mrs Henderson: Victoria Davies
Director: Joanna Read
Designer: Tim Meacock
Lighting: Jim Simmons
Sound: Gina Hills
2001-10-19 00:28:39