Rutherford and Son

Synopsis

John Rutherford has built up the business like his father before him and he naturally expects to pass it on to his eldest son. However, his son has other plans. He has something to sell, an invention that will release him from his father's tyranny and a future following in those laborious footsteps. With aspirations to achieve independence, make their own futures and find love, Rutherford's children have choices to make that may jeopardise the business and the family. This Edwardian classic and powerful drama is on a par with the work of Ibsen, Gorky and Granville Barker. It enjoyed huge success in London and New York, and was hailed as 'a remarkable play'.

Our Review:

28 February 2013

For many people, the phrase ‘Edwardian family drama’ these days inevitably conjures up associations of Downton Abbey. Githa Sowerby’s 1912 play Rutherford and Son, revived in Northern Broadsides’ current tour, however, gives us a very different slice of the social spectrum. This is not the world of sumptuous surroundings, elegant dinners, and witty quips from a Dowager Duchess: instead, it’s a gritty presentation of an unhappy industrial family in crisis.

It seems almost unfair to single out specific actors in an expert piece of ensemble playing such as this, but Barrie Rutter is superb as the eponymous tyrannical father. It would be easy for a part like this to descend into caricature, but in Rutter’s hands it never does: while certainly not a likeable man, there is light and shade in the performance that saves him from being an unmitigated monster. There isn’t really a weak link in the cast, however, and it is testament to both the strength of the writing and the actors...

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