YORK Theatre Royal and Halifax company Northern Broadsides are mounting a co-production for the first time since 2006 and aptly they are doing so with a play as Yorkshire as Boycott and Wensleydale cheese.
Bradford bard J B Priestley knew more than a thing or two about marriage – he married three times – and his “Yorkshire Comical Farce” is built on the anguish of stagnant relationships, giving it resonance in every era, albeit that the shackles can be released so much more readily in our age of “prenups” and flatpack divorce kits.
Written in 1938, when couples would stick together, for worse and even worse, When We Are Married is set in the wool town of Clecklewyke in 1908, when what was right and proper was even more entrenched.
Steve Huison's Herbert Soppitt, left, Adrian Hood's Councillor Albert Parker and Mark Stratton's Alderman Joseph Helliwell in an awkward moment in When We Are Married. Picture: Nobby Clark
Priestley throws a playful spanner in the works by pondering what would happen if you discovered you were not really married after all: the very fate of three complacent, chapel-going Edwardian couples who have gathered to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the day they all took their vows.
They have invited the Yorkshire Argus reporter (Matthew Booth) and photographer (Barrie Rutter) to record the event but...hold the front page because la-di-da southerner Gerald Forbes (Luke Adamson), the new chapel organist they wish to dismiss for brazenly courting young Nancy Holmes (Sophia Hatfield), has incriminating evidence that their certificates were null and void.
Court in the act: courting couple Luke Adamson as chapel organist Gerald Forbes and Sophia Hatfield as Nancy Holmes. Picture: Nobby Clark
The setting is the sitting room of Alderman Joseph Helliwell and his uppity wife Maria, presented in Jessica Worrall's open-plan design in a classic farce construction: all doors and doorways for a revolving door of comings, goings and carryings-on as truculent staff listen at the keyhole.
After 12 years of waiting to acquire permission to stage what is surely a quintessential Broadsides show, artistic director Barrie Rutter has responded gleefully to the long-overdue chance by assembling his dream of a cast.
Mrs Northrop in a strop: Lisa Howard's charwoman lets off steam. Picture: Nobby Clark
His armoury of amusement is led by the three sniffy couples: the arms-aloft Mark Stratton and uppity Geraldine Fitzgerald as the Helliwells; Kate Anthony as sourpuss, Les Dawsin-faced Clare Soppitt and a delightful Steve Huison as her hen-pecked husband Herbert, and the large and little show of the 6ft 6ins Adrian Hood’s blustering bore, Councillor Albert Parker, and 4ft 11ins Sue Devaney as his long-suffering wife Annie.
Hood and Devaney's second act “serious talk” is the high spot of a robust, rollicking production rich with splendid performances, from Adamson’s rather charming Forbes to Lisa Howard’s bolshy charwoman Mrs Northrop; Kat Rose-Martin’s rebellious housemaid Ruby Birtle to Rutter’s drunken, anarchic photographer, the Falstaffian Henry Ormonroyd.
That's your Lottie: Zoe Lambert as Blackpool broad Lottie Grady and Barrie Rutter as tipsy photographer Henry Ormonroyd. Picture: Nobby Clark
Come the Second Act, Zoe Lambert's naughty bit on the seaside, Lottie Grady, is a riot in red as she causes a situation as sticky as Blackpool rock.
The Priestley pandemonium is played at a lick; the comedic style is largely as broad as the Broadsides name; the costumes (Janet Hull) and suits (Les The Tailor) are the finishing touch.
When We Are Married runs at York Theatre Royal until September 24 and then tours around Yorkshire to Hull Truck Theatre, September 27 to October 1; West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, October 18 to 22, and Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, October 25 to 29, finishing up at the Viaduct Theatre in Northern Broadsides' home town of Halifax from November 29 to December 10.
Box office: York, 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Hull, 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk; Leeds, 0113 213 7700 or wyp.org,uk; Scarborough, 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com
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