"When We Are Married" by J.B. Priestley

Nottingham Lace Market Theatre

J.B. Priestley is one of our finest Northern playwrights and dramatists and "When We Are married" is one of his finest and most comical of his plays.

Three very respectable couples, old friends, were all married on the same day twenty five years previously, gather at the Helliwells’ home to celebrate their silver anniversary. They discover they are not legally married, thanks to Gerald Frobes, an organist, and even worse, a Southern man, Each couple initially react with Victorian horror – what will the neighbors think? – and all three couples find themselves re-evaluating their marriages; Hovering closely over the proceedings is the Yorkshire Argus' alcohol-soaked photographer, Henry Ormonroyd, keen to record the evening's events for posterity, and a wickedly destructive housekeeper, Mrs Northrop, who is hoping to use the couples' mortification to her own advantage.

This particular selection of actors are perfect in their characterizations of the subjects of Priestley's 1938 period farce. The three grooms, Alderman Helliwell (John Anthony), Councillor Parker (Fraser Wanless) and Herbert Soppitt (Roger Watson) are all wonderful in their prospective roles as the grooms who discover that, just for a moment, they may be free of the shackles of matrimony, which gives all three the chance to take stock of their lives.

The brides Maria Helliwell (Jackie Dunn), Annie Parker (Janice White) and Clara Soppitt (Linda Croston) are equally mesmerising in their roles. All six have some wonderful comic lines and some brilliantly sharp put downs for their men folk.I really could not pick a favourite from these six because they all delivered some cracking performances.

There are also some wonderful comic roles on the interim from Pat Richards as Ormoroyd, what a classic drunken character-driven role for Pat, reminding me slightly of the late Jimmy Jewel. Alison Hope as Mrs Northrop was fantastic as the stroppy housekeeper to the Helliwells. Gill Cooke was also at her manic best as Lottie Grady, the "would be flame" of one of the grooms, who pours petrol over the raging fires of the Silver Wedding fiasco with her Blackpool revelations.

Anne McCarroll, (housemaid), Matthew Thomason, (Frobes), Ruth Page (Maria's niece), Tom Orton (the reporter), and Stephen Herring (Reverand Mercer) complete the cast list.

Wonderful costumes and props (love the facial hair), and lovingly directed by Dan Maddison, I get the feeling that this particular play was a labour of love for Dan. And the accents were, as usual for the Lace Market Theatre, spot on. The vocal coach at the Lace Market always seem to get the regional accents absolutely right.

To sum up, this is a wonderfully warm and funny play with a wonderfully sharp script, great character actors, with some wonderful characters to play. In short it's just wonderful. T' play is on up t' Sat'day 25 July 2015 at t' Lace Market Theatre, and there's no "lah di dah" t' be seen anywhere.

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When We Are Married at the Lace Market Theatre: Review

In Edwardian industrial Yorkshire three respectable couples, new-money middle-class, who were married on the same day twenty-five years earlier, get together for a joint celebration. But there's a catastrophic revelation.

This might be one of J B Priestley's more light-hearted pieces but it contains most of the elements we associate with the playwright. Skeletons are tumbled out of cupboards; pomposity is deflated, the smug are brought to greater self-awareness.

And at the end, as usual, there's a character standing in for Priestley himself who makes a speech, this time a brief and inebriated one, about how we have to cast aside petty differences of wealth and status and all pull together.

Priestley's mouthpiece here is broken down press photographer Henry Ormonroyd, played in one of the two top performances of the evening by Pat Richards. It's a richly comic, beautifully observed piece of work.

Fraser Wanless, who gets to say "trouble at t'mill", is the other outstanding performer. As self-made businessman, town councillor, prominent churchman, chairman of this and that, and self-important monster bore, Albert Park, Wanless convinces utterly. And it isn't just down to the way he stands pontificating, feet astride and thumbs in waistcoat pocket, or his popping eyes when confronted with the truth about himself.

The set-piece scene between Parker and long-suffering wife Annie (Janice White) is a high point of the play.

There's polished work too from, among others, Matthew Thomason, as handsome young Southerner Gerald Frobes, Alison Hope, as snoopy housekeeper Mrs Northrop, Roger Watson (Herbert Soppitt), Linda Croston (Clara Soppitt) and Tom Orton (junior reporter Fred Dyson). Gill Cook's good-time girl Lottie Grady is very funny, if somewhat over-exuberant and inappropriately pantomimic. The red costume doesn't help.

Some occasional uncertainty over lines will no doubt be put right.

A sell-out audience clearly enjoyed the evening.

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