![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Husbands & Sons
Nov. 8th, 2015 01:24 pmAs soon as I knew Anne-Marie Duff was going to be in this play at the Dorfman Theatre (one of the three theatres at the National on the Southbank) I was determined I was going to go. So much so that I booked tickets on my phone while I was staying up in London. Which was just as well, because by the time I got home three days later, the performance was sold out.
Husbands & Sons is an amalgamation of three plays by D H Lawrence: A Collier's Friday Night, The Daughter-in-Law and The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd. All three plays are set in the mining village of Eastwood on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border (and incidentally about two miles from the village of Greasley a family surname on SM's side - he comes from Nottingham). So instead of having separate plays the various neighbours were brought into each others' lives, as would have happened in such villages.
The set showed the cottages of the three main families, with the downstairs rooms marked out and with basic furniture in each. By use of the lighting the overshadowing of the coal mine is shown when the miners return from the pit and at the end of the play. There's also a long scene when it is raining heavily and again the rainfall is shown by lighting effects and heard when the characters are outside, or when a door is opened, but silent when the characters are within their cottages. The description sounds quite gimicky, but it worked very well, probably because of the overall atmosphere which had been set up.
The acting was good throughout. I was pleased to see Louise Brearley and Joe Armstrong again, this time playing another couple, Luther and Minnie Gascoigne. Anne-Marie Duff as Lizzie Holroyd went through a whole gamut of emotions, all of which rang painfully true in her portrayal. The climax of the play brought out the best in all the actors and left me feeling part of that community.
It's not a happy play - which I hadn't expected, since this was D H Lawrence - but one I would recommend. It's currently on in London and going to Manchester for a month from the middle of February.
Husbands & Sons is an amalgamation of three plays by D H Lawrence: A Collier's Friday Night, The Daughter-in-Law and The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd. All three plays are set in the mining village of Eastwood on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border (and incidentally about two miles from the village of Greasley a family surname on SM's side - he comes from Nottingham). So instead of having separate plays the various neighbours were brought into each others' lives, as would have happened in such villages.
The set showed the cottages of the three main families, with the downstairs rooms marked out and with basic furniture in each. By use of the lighting the overshadowing of the coal mine is shown when the miners return from the pit and at the end of the play. There's also a long scene when it is raining heavily and again the rainfall is shown by lighting effects and heard when the characters are outside, or when a door is opened, but silent when the characters are within their cottages. The description sounds quite gimicky, but it worked very well, probably because of the overall atmosphere which had been set up.
The acting was good throughout. I was pleased to see Louise Brearley and Joe Armstrong again, this time playing another couple, Luther and Minnie Gascoigne. Anne-Marie Duff as Lizzie Holroyd went through a whole gamut of emotions, all of which rang painfully true in her portrayal. The climax of the play brought out the best in all the actors and left me feeling part of that community.
It's not a happy play - which I hadn't expected, since this was D H Lawrence - but one I would recommend. It's currently on in London and going to Manchester for a month from the middle of February.
