Review: When We Are Married

The Guthrie's last production of the Season "When We Are Married" is the perfect Summer Ending to one of their best seasons ever. While the production itself is a mixed bag, the tone of the play is light and frothy and it puts a cap on a fantastic fare like a nice desert wine after a fulsome and filling meal. The play reunites many Guthrie favorites from Peter Michael Goetz to Sally Wingert to Barbara Byrne and gives us Turn-of-the-century Yorkshire conservatism at its best. While the accents are a bit uneven, they are for the most part not bad and dialect coach Gillian Lane-Plescia deserves kudoes.

J.B. Priestly's play starts off nicely by introducing the "downstairs" members of the household in the guise of Ruby Birtle, played brilliantly by Maggie Chestovich. Birdle serves as our 15 year old eyes on the household and relationships of some of Checklewyke's more prominent conservative citizens and their foibles. After Birdle's exit the first act slows down to a bit of a crawl introducing our young lovers in a sub plot that really fails to excite. Offering us the theme of the excitement of young preconnubial bliss, we eventually are informed that the 25th wedding anniversary being celebrated in the manor is based on a misconception and the three couples who believed themselves to have been married 25 years prior were actually wed by an undocumented clergyman and thus the validity of their marriages is cast in doubt. Priestley's 1938 play thus allows for an examination of the importance and meaning of marriage to those who have experienced it through its ups and downs. Not surprisingly some of the spouses are no longer as eager to retie the knot after having time to consider what the marital state has done to their lives. The second act plods a long setting up the situation so that the third and final section of the play can burst forth with surprises as well as tie everything up in a nice tight bow albeit with a few age-stains and tarnishes.

Set in 1908, it is clear that there is little hope of any of the women suddenly turning suffragist and renouncing marriage for the freedom of free love and Trotsky, but nonetheless there is at least the recognition of the narrowness of women's lives at the time with one character played by Linda Kelsey toying with the desire to have adventures and wear (circus) tights. It is interesting of course to see a play written in the 30s, set in '08 and dealing with issues for us one hundred years later. Priestley raises issues of hen-pecked and stingy controlling husbands and contrasts them to questions of wifely duty, pretended upper class privilege of social climbers and the inevitable acceptance a wife must have for her husband's philandering. We don't need to look farther than Elizabeth Dole and Hillary Clinton to see that these issues are still important today.

The ensemble does a marvelous job and while I felt the first two acts could have been tighter, the final one is a tour de force and worth the elements of boredom in the beginning. Sally Wingert as always turns in a fine performance as a woman of questionable virtue from Blackpool and while I am sure there are those that adored the over the top portrayal of the tiddly photographer by Colin McPhillamy, for me it was a trifle much. Brian Dennehy pulled this kind of role off beautifully as Alfred P Doolittle, and photographer Ormonroyd is a bitt too much of a buffoon and not quite enough of a self-righteous unfortunate. The six primaries are wonderful. Goetz plays the abused Herbert Soppitt marvelously and Patricia Connolly does a marvelous job of revealing an iron fist within the daintily laced sleeves of her Edwardian costume. I so enjoyed Helen Carey as the Maria Helliwell and Linda Kelsey has a wonderful patience and yet brittleness that makes her character poignant and heart-breaking. Both Dennis Creaghan and Raye Birk are convincing and enjoyable in their staunch attempts to prevent the La-di-dah fashions of the outside world from penetrating their little nest of conservatism.

There are marvelous images on the Guthrie website ( http://www.guthrietheater.org/sites/default/files/playguide_WhenWeAreMarried.pdf) which show the gorgeous costumes by Mathew J LeFebvre. I would go just to see those! Finally I want to encourage people to go in order to watch Barbara Byrne in the role of the housekeeper Mrs. Northrup. Byrne has never let us down in her performances whether of minor or major roles and her disobedient kitchen maid is an utter delight!