Three decidedly Yorkshire couples, with each celebrating twenty five years of matrimonial union, are informed that, officially, they are not married. Prior to this shattering revelation, pretty devastating stuff for when the play takes place, it has been obvious to us that each relationship, festivities aside, is not akin to musical harmony but played instead, rather atonally, in the keys of resentment, suppressed anger and even contempt. Since they are no longer married, each of the six involved individuals no longer has to play the role or attitude till now assumed.
We have odd pairings here. Councilor Parker, a blatantly obvious asshole, lords his small town achievements over his poised and unsatisfied – in all ways- wife. He is extrovert with his venom and she is introvert with her patience. Alderman Helliwell, big and clueless in his own self-absorbed way, also takes for granted a supportive mate whose joie de vive, or anything else, has no welcoming place to go. Herbert Soppitt, a chap of some decency, is disregarded by his two friends because he lacks an official position and -no more be said- by his quintessentially ball-breaking wife.
In all of this, the audience gets to cheer, say, when wife of Parker has occasion to throw Parker’s asshole self back in his face or Soppitt gets to not only rebel against his bitchy mate, but to return the slap she gives him. Indeed, it’s not hard to take sides in this play. Yet within this hilarious situation, there emerges a touching and realistic depiction of the ways a once-blooming garden of marriage can become a hell of life-sucking weeds. And, as always, we have a richly populated Festival company that shines in ensemble productions with many individual talents from top to bottom—imagine Peter Millard or Norman Browning, say, doing just walk on performances.
Each performance certainly delights but also demands honest thought because no actor – thanks to director Joseph Ziegler’s creation of a humane underpinning – here goes for stereotype or cliché. Whenever we ridicule or despise some of these folks, we also become concerned that, with their human limitations, they have nowhere else in life to go but to pettiness, meanness or a smallness of being. In these three couples, thanks to playwright J. B. Priestley, we have six distinct lives that imply much about individual psychology and also social constraints.
Having said all this, we have a production that is very entertaining, very engaging, hilarious, unobtrusively poignant, and full of the playwright’s sympathetic understanding of his fellow beings. These are people who live with irritations, personal frustrations, their boredom with others, and secret longings, even as they practice their sometimes merciless small town prejudices. They do get their comeuppance and must endure Mary Haney as maid Mrs. Northrop twisting her mouth in glee at now having the upper hand.
There is much telling detail in the insightfully portrayed marrieds here –Claire Jullien, Thom Marriott, Kate Hennig, Patrick McManus, Catherine McGregor, Patrick Galligan. Equally well-rounded are the big-mustached Henry of Peter Krantz who makes an art of seeming unwashed, the pleasingly tartish Lottie of Fiona Byrne, and the quick-retorting, chirpy, chatty, busty bullet of a maid Ruby of Jennifer Dzialoszynski who is so uniquely delightful that one smiles at her every appearance. Wade Bogert-O’Brien, Kate Bosworth, and Charlie Gallant add nicely etched humanizing touches in a thoroughly engaging production. No wonder that Priestley wrote the play “very happily and at furious speed” often laughing along with words he set down. As a result, we laugh a lot too.