Hobson's Choice, The Crucible, 1 June '11
In this brilliant Sheffield Theatres production set in Salford in 1880, Henry Hobson, a drunken buffoonish widower superbly played by Barrie Rutter, is a boot shop owner whose archaic patriarchal ways are confronted by his three increasingly rebellious daughters.
This play is rich with a kind of timeless characters and humour, plus a formidable edge added by a strong and decidedly Northern sensibility at its heart that raises much laughter from the audience.
Maggie, played by talented actress Zoe Waites, is the clever and strong-willed eldest daughter whose knack for business is the secret behind her father’s success. Whilst her father considers her too old (30, no less) and plain to marry, she strategizes a coup where she forcefully proposes marriage to star-of-the-show Will Mossop, played by Philip McGinley, who also happens to be Hobson's best (albeit simple) underpaid bootmaker. Will reluctantly accepts, and they both set off to open a rival shoe-making business, minutes away from the family shop.
A month later, Maggie comes back to tell her less independent-minded sisters that she is going to marry them off herself. Yes, Hobson claims they are not worth settling any money for, without which they are unlikely to find decent husbands. With the help of lawyer Albert Prosser, Alice's love, they frame Hobson and issue a court order claiming damages for trespass. Hobson is left with no option but to pay, and the money is settled on the girls and they can now get married.
Hobson’s choice is set in a time when the patriarchal control of women depended on women being denied the right to earn or even inherit their own money. Further restrictions placed on women made them look to marriage as a means of stability, thus making them even more dependent on men. The daughters’ options were limited and unpromising at best at the start of the play, but Maggie’s bright mind saved them from doom – proving that behind every powerful man is an even more powerful woman, as the saying goes.
Christopher Luscombe’s adaptation of one of the most popular plays of the last century, by English playwright Harold Brighouse, is well observed and throughly good fun. The cast was fantastic, and they most definitely deserved the audience’s warm response last night.
Emmanuelle Chazarin
