Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Hobson’s Choice’, which is at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-Under-Lyme until Saturday 12th April 2014.
As the 19th Century gave way to the 20th, Harold Brighouse wrote 65 plays. But only ‘Hobson’s Choice’ is performed with any regularity, largely by amateur companies. He was writing in a different world when playwrights could extend their scenes as long as they liked and demand extra three actors to make only the briefest of appearances. Theatre managers would never allow that kind of profligacy today.
So it’s taken the pooling of the resources of three of our leading regional theatres to get this 100 year old show back on the road. Much may have changed, but human frailties and outrageous attitudes remain the same; engaging the audience’s quiet empathy and audible indignation. Meanwhile, the comedy of straight answers and plain talking still generates plenty of prolonged laughter.
Harold Hobson is a cobbler king; British middle class and proud of it. His emporium in Victorian Salford makes shoes to delight the gentry. But he’s used to ruling his business, and his three “uppish” daughters, with absolute tyranny; too wrapped up in his own pig-headed importance to notice the worm turning.
The moment when he threatens to take a leather strap to his best craftsman is so horrible his eldest daughter Maggie decides something must be done. And so we get a play about prejudice and pride – but not necessarily in that order.
Hobson is a tough part and Maxwell Hutcheon (pictured) is marvellous in it – satisfactorily making a modern audience condemn his misogynistic ways, whilst still retaining a glimmer of sympathy for a man whose whole being and background blinds him to his own downfall. The transition from peacock to quivering bird is a commensurate piece of acting which doubtless draws upon a long and impressive stage career. He fits the part like a well-worn shoe.
He’s up against his eldest daughter Maggie. Natalie Grady runs the show with the rod of Thatcher….giving brazen orders and “not allowing folk to change their minds”. This is a powerful, persuasive performance of a character who demands justice and is prepared to drop through the social trapdoor to get it. Grady is steely and matter-of-fact and Brighouse gives her some deliciously sardonic lines which she drops like well-aimed water bombs, knowing precisely how far the ripples of laughter will reach.
I wouldn’t want to marry her, but that is the fate of mild-mannered Willie Mossop. There’s something of George Formby about Michael Shelford. I think it’s the smile and the desire to please. He gets Mossop’s beguiling nature just right. He’s put upon, yes, but still strong minded and nothing like as naïve as he might appear. Amidst the carping humour and battle of wills, there is true tenderness when Maggie, in nightgown and candlelight, takes Willie to their wedding bed.
The overall show may feel stretched at three hours but the internal timing is immaculate and there is more than enough here to educate and entertain.
And, being a Northern lad myself, any play that ends with the line “Well, by gum” is alright with me.
Visit www.newvictheatre.org.uk for bookings & more information about New Vic Theatre
Photo credit : Ian Tilton.