WIDOWERS' HOUSES. To 9 May.
Manchester.
WIDOWERS’ HOUSES
by George Bernard Shaw.
Royal Exchange Theatre To 9 May 2009.
Mon-Fri 7.30pm Sat 8pm Mat Wed 2.30pm Sat 4pm.
BSL: Signed 9 May 4pm.
Post-show discussion 30 April.
Runs 2hr 5min One interval.
TICKETS: 0161 833 9833.
www.royalexchane.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 27 April.
A ‘Play Unpleasant’ including socialist social comedy.
Not a lot happens in the first of Widower’s Houses’ three acts. If anything, Gregory Hersov’s production goes rather far in suggesting the lugubriously controlling side to Sartorius, whom innocent young Harry Trench and his friend Cokane meet sightseeing in France.
For the languid opening creates a sense of middle-class holiday ease, where even money be spoken of lightly among those with an adequate income.
It’s in the central act, back in London, with Trench due to marry beautiful young Blanche (less white in character than her name suggests), that reality stabs through. Even in his first, 1892, play Shaw wields the knife in more than one direction.
Cokane may be the first of the playwright’s blitheringly complacent Englishmen, but Trench is a doctor. Though Shaw didn’t think much of medics, Harry presumably has some brains. And he revolts when the splendidly-named rent-collector Lickcheese spills the ugly beans about the source of Sartorius’ wealth and, therefore, Trench’s investment income.
Decades ago Michael Blakemore directed a production that ended with the characters, their differences resolved, laughing happily as a slide showed the slums upon which they depend. Hersov’s conclusion, with Sartorius and the newly-rich Lickcheese ushering each other first through a door, is less explosive.
But the way every avenue of scrutiny, complaint and government initiative can be corrupted to further the profiteers’ profits comes over strongly. And if audiences of 2009 no longer see the Victorian stage-types Shaw’s subverting, Hersov ensures Lucy Briggs-Owen’s Blanche is clearly a spoilt-child version of her father.
Roger Lloyd Pack’s Sartorius restrains his clear power, acting ruthlessly but with calm and logic. In a rare moment of soliloquy he reveals the weariness of oppression, handing over to his daughter, whose chaotic temperament hardly suggest a quiet married life for Trench.
Though the opening starts in a tone that suggests effortful comedy, Ian Shaw is funny as the snobbish Cokane, Ben Addis callow and glib as Trench. Back in the working world, Ian Bartholomew’s Lickcheese transforms convincingly from impoverished desperation to pompous prosperity, while Vanessa-Faye Stanley represents the powerless who attach loyalty to a callous employer.
William de Burgh Cokane: Ian Shaw.
Dr Harry Trench: Ben Addis.
Mr Sartorius: Roger Lloyd Pack.
Blanche Sartorius: Lucy Briggs-Owen.
Mr Lickcheese: Ian Bartholomew.
Waiter/Parlourmaid: Vanessa-Faye Stanley.
Director: Greg Hersov.
Designer: Ashley Martin-Davis.
Lighting: David Holmes.
Sound: Steve Brown.
2009-04-29 15:32:14