Rutherford & son is not the best known British play from the early twentieth century, nor Githa Sowerby the best known playwright. People might consider George Bernard Shaw or Harley Granville Barker to be of more worthy of "the cannon". Perhaps that was why I struggled to get someone to come with me to the press night on Tuesday. Other excuses were the length of the play or the serious nature of the material. So, I went on my own, feeling somewhat tired and reticent about what I had let myself in for.
However, I was in for a treat. Rutherford & Son is surely lesser known, than other plays from the period, only because Githa Sowerby was a woman. The original production inevitably named the author only as KG Sowerby, so as not to reveal her gender. Now, a hundred years or so after it was first staged, as we watch this powerful and important play, it stands out from the crowd, because the voice of the playwright is different. The best and most insightful characters (bar perhaps that of Rutherford himself) are given to the women - Mary and Janet. They can see more clearly what is happening around them and, perhaps, the fundamental changes that were about to shake Edwardian Britain to its core (the play was first staged just two years before the outbreak of WW1).
It is a long evening - even Edwardian women playwrights wrote in Three Acts and on a grand scale. However, the time flew by. It was beautifully acted, directed and designed - as to be expected from a main house production at Sheffield Theatres. In particular, though, go and see the show for Owen Teale's performance as Rutherford, which is magnificent and also for that of Janet Elphinstone as Janet Rutherford. In fact, the whole cast were good.
You have to be prepared to let the show take root and wash over you, though. It is not one for quick and easy nuggets of pleasure (like a musical), but instead a slow and intense build. It's more like settling down to watch all the episodes of a BBC costume drama in one go or a Netflix box set. But it's worth it.
It is on at Sheffield Theatres until Saturday 23rd Feb
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