Husbands and Sons – Manchester School of Theatre

DH Lawrence called success ‘the bitch goddess’, during his lifetime he suffered constant vilification with his work dismissed as little more than pornography, dying before he could see his vindication as one of the most important writers of the 20th century. His depiction of the details of working-class life in Nottinghamshire in the years before and after the first World War finds its apogee in ‘Sons and Lovers’ and ‘Women in Love’, but it is a 2015 condensing of three of his short plays, adapted by Ben Power, that Manchester School of Theatre present this evening. Despite some excellent central performances and innovative direction, the piece never wholly manages to satisfy as a single entity.

We begin with ‘A Collier’s Friday Night’ exploring the simple lives and loves of the Lambert family, Walter (Harry Bloor) and Lydia (Adelina) at the end of their working week. Mundane normality is developed, the most interesting details being found with son Ernest (Harvey Weedon), a young man educated beyond his family’s understanding, now trying to break away from his background through his relationship with Maggie (Lara Rose Hancox). As the production developed this story felt increasingly marginalised by the wider action and though well presented, never felt fully explored and lacked a definitive conclusion.

In ‘The Daughter In Law’, new bride Minnie Gascoigne (Azaelia Slade) is pitted against her over protective mother-in-law (Ellie Campbell) in a fight for the love and affection of Luther (Reuben Gotts). Their story develops rather listlessly through the evening, lacking the spite inherent in the writing and only really sparking into life at the conclusion, when the women are reconciled following the near death of Luther in a mining accident.

The same accident forms the dramatic conclusion of the third story ‘The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd’, as miner’s wife Lizzie (Jess Gough) is torn between marital duty to the abusive Charles (Samuel Bates) and the chance of happiness with Blackmore (Kai Ross). By far the most developed of the three strands, the nuanced performance of Ross was supported ably by Helena Braithwaite as Grandmother during the second act, but both Gough and Bates took the acting plaudits with powerhouse performances. However, the dominance of the Holroyd storyline, whilst gripping in its own right, was detrimental to the other two pieces and served to unbalance the production. With minimal interaction between the three stories, except at the conclusion, the three component parts stand alone as vignettes of the lives of the families working in the cruel conditions of Brinsley pit, without ever coalescing to convince.

Director Sean Aydon demonstrates his considerable skill in trying to mould this unwieldy trilogy into a coherent whole, the mirroring of activities across all three households – women praying and crying and the men dressing in the dawn light for another shift at the pit – are elegant and subtly portrayed. However, Aydon was constantly ill served by the adaptation which constantly pulled the stories on different trajectories, the adaptation by Ben Power more suited to film or television with the constant movement between storylines a distraction on a theatre stage. There was also room for some judicious editing of the script, the three-hour runtime felt overlong with extraneous scenes and conversations which failed to move any of the stories forward peppered throughout.

The presentation in an arena space by Set Designer Kirsty Barlow, gave us three sparsely furnished living rooms within which the three separate strands of the story were played out, minimal props aiding the sight lines of the audience greatly as the action switched focus around the stage throughout the evening. Lighting by Tracey Gibbs evoked appropriate gloom rather than cosiness through candlelight with the overall technical presentation of professional standard one has come to expect from MST.

Overall, an excellent staging with persuasive performances marred by a flawed adaptation that required severe pruning.

Reviewer: Paul Wilcox

Reviewed: 2nd February 2023

North West End UK Rating: ★★★