*****
WHEN you first sit down to watch Marianne Elliott’s stunning play, Bunny Christie’s expansive set, if just for a second, has the feel of a restaurant. Though the tables, chairs and place settings belong to separate houses, as the play's adaptor Ben Power seamlessly interweaves three DH Lawrence plays into one gripping piece, set within a mining community.
A tremendous performance. I could not take my eyes off her...
As the spotlight falls on each family home, we become aware that the relationships within them are as claustrophobic and suffocating as the mines the men enter each day. The play may be called Husbands and Sons, but this is really about the women of the household.
Lydia (Julia Ford) holds the Lambert family together and keeps close to her son, Ernest (Johnny Gibbon), as he strives to get an education. She tries to protect him, but Ernest becomes as suffocated as his father, Walter (Lloyd Hutchinson). The scenes involving these three very different family members, highlighting the social divides that can exist in just one home, are excellent.
Lizzie Holroyd (played by the magnificent Anne-Marie Duff, main image) attempts to keep her family together, while her abusive husband Charles (Martin Marquez) is more interested in booze and women than their son, Jack. The sheer pain and frustration etched onto Duff’s face throughout is a lesson in the power of non-verbal acting.
Meanwhile, Minnie Gascoigne (Louise Brealey) is newly married to Luther (Joe Armstrong), and even though she loves his animalistic qualities, she wants more from life. When asked why he married her, Luther simply replies 'because I was asked'. Theirs is a volatile household, as dark and dingy as the pits.
Performances throughout are excellent. Johnny Gibbon brings some light relief as the optimistic, yet deeply serious Ernest, whilst Julia Ford's mother manages to smother both her son and the audience. Sue Wallace, Charles' mother, bristles with energy whilst Lloyd Hutchinson plays a man trapped by vocation, with real ease.
But it is Anne Marie-Duff who steals the show, playing a woman devoted to her son and husband, torn between her household duties and her desires. A tremendous performance, which has the power to hold you in a vice-like grip. I could not take my eyes off her.
Relentless, heart-breaking and frustratingly real, Marianne Elliott’s Husbands and Sons had the potential to feel disjointed. And while wavering Yorkshire accents grate slightly, this performance has enough grit, stoicism and heartache to move you long after the final act.
Husbands and Sons is at the Royal Exchange until 19 March.
