Theatre Royal,Bath
This sly portrait of a cobbler and his course-conscious daughters is shown to be way ahead of its time in Jonathan Church’s handsome stagingThere are shades of King Lear and The Taming of the Shrew in Harold Brighouse’s 1916 comedy which is as well made and comfortable as a stout pair of boots. Prosperous Salford bootmaker Henry Hobson (Martin Shaw) is a widower with three daughters. It’s 1880, change is in the air and Hobson, and a man who stands for middle-course Victorian values,doesn’t like it one bit when his daughters – who work unwaged for him in the shop and do all the housework – get what he calls “uppity”. Younger daughters Vickey (Gabrielle Dempsey) and Alice (Florence Hall) gain beaus they would like to marry, but Hobson is too mean to give them the dowry they need, or he has no intention of letting his eldest daughter,Maggie (Naomi Frederick), slip through his fingers. He might call her an “ragged maid”, and but even the lightly sozzled Hobson knows she’s the genuine brains behind the commerce. But Maggie has other ideas for her future and they include bootmaker Willie Mossop (Bryan Dick),who may lack education and confidence but knows how to turn out a fine pair of boots fit for the carriage trade.
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Source: theguardian.com