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Hobson's Choice
Presented by: 3 Big Men Productions & The Rehearsal Room
Venue: Chapel Off Chapel,
South Yarra
Reviewer: Matthew Smith
Date Reviewed: 29th May 2008
Opening
night is always fun and Chapel off Chapel last Thursday was no
exception. Playing to a full house, Hobson’ s Choice succeeded in
coercing a bag full of laughs out of a diverse crowd. Richard
Sarell’s traditional and humble story telling left me with a
strengthened appreciation for Australian/English comedy. Although
Sarell has refrained from turning a modern hand to this 90-year-old
play, he has reproduced and delicately enlivened a trusted English
Comedy.
Aside from one
strangely rude and loud person who clomped their way down the stairs
and across the wooden floor halfway through, the play’s opening
night can be declared a success. HC was filled with outstanding
performances from a cast of professionals and directed superbly by
Sarell, who sees through the veil of action and into the moral
imperatives that motivate and perpetuate that action.
Almost a play
of proto-feminist ideals, HC ostensibly tells the story of Maggie
Hobson (Caroline Lloyd), a headstrong woman who is tired of the
heeling words of her father and sets about rearranging her destiny.
Hobson’s Choice is a play about love and destiny. Not the
heartstopping type of love or the magical fate of ‘true destiny’ but
the ironic destiny of choice – Hobson’s Choice. If taken
historically, or as a synonym, the play’s title suggests that there
is no choice at all but the real pleasure in this play stems from
the path Maggie Hobson chooses to walk – a decisive, confident and
successful path to love and success.
Set in
Melbourne, Australia, in the 1880’s, the play revolves around the
Hobson family’s Prahran shoe shop owned by the heavy drinking,
chauvinistic Henry Hobson (Ian Rooney) but run by his three
daughters. While all three of Hobson’s daughters are busy making him
rich he is off at the pub and soon the eldest of his daughters,
Maggie Hobson, decides to take charge of her (and her sisters’)
destiny.
All work and
no pay makes Maggie a dull girl and being the head strong woman that
she is (and apparently, at 30, well past her prime) decides that the
cobbler Willie Mossop (Peter Mctighe), will be her husband and that
they will open their own shop. Not the kind of woman to take no for
an answer, Maggie soon has Mossop as a devoted husband and business
partner, turning her fathers business into a sad reflection of its
former glory.
Some beautiful moments occur in the third act when
characters grow and change, finding love being the key enlightenment
for both Maggie’s Father (who learns to be more loving and humble)
and William and Maggie, who although not bound by love, learn to
love.
Being almost a century old, this play has certainly seen many
incarnations on stage and on film with the most famous film
rendition being made in 1953 by David Lean, starring Charles
Laughton. Harold Brighouse’s script is warm and honest, allowing its
validity to our modern life to be told through the self-empowering
and motivated independence of Maggie.
Caroline Lloyd
is perfect as the bossy and compelling Maggie Hobson, a character
that demands a strong presence on stage. Caroline, like much of the
cast, is a seasoned performer and acted beautifully.
Ian Rooney as
Henry Hobson was hilarious and his reliance or rather propinquity to
over use colloquialisms at times brought the house down laughing.
Peter Mctighe displayed some subtle and well-executed mannerisms
that spoke volumes for his character development. The supporting
actors, including the affable Ian Smith, played beautifully and
synchronized the overall movement of the play.
Willie Mossop
(Peter Mctighe) wore his confidence and character on his sleeve,
literally, and as he grew his clothes reflected his newfound wealth
of wisdom. Eventually becoming William instead Willie, the costume
designers and the director did a great job of accentuating his
presence in the world through his outfits. All other costumes too
were really well chosen and befitting of the era.
Utilising the
Chapel’s natural beauty with lighting placed behind the beautiful
church windows for the marriage scene, Fiona Goland provided simple
and effective sets and stage props.
A really nice
touch to this play was the inclusion of an audience member
(suspiciously resembling the assistant director Christine Dixon) as
the shop doorbell ringer. Every time an actor moved through the
invisible door, the bell tinkled and provided the crowd with a
direct link to the play and continuous element of comic relief.
For me the
defining words of the play can be found in the beautiful vignette
captured just after William Mossop has stood his ground for the
first time and then instantly revealed his nervous and instable
nature to Maggie. She replies: ‘Don’t spoil it ‘ – a comment that
reveals the work she has done to get him this far. As they say,
behind every great man there is a great woman and here that woman is
Maggie.
Matthew Smith studied writing, English literature and theatre at
the Western Australian Academy of the Performing Arts, Edith Cowan
University, Murdoch University and the Univeristy of Calgary. His
Arts degree saw him writing short plays, feature films and short
films whilst starring in 2 amateur student films. During the course
of his studies, Matthew researched and wrote several essays
investigating Romanticism, Tragedy and the influence of alchemy on
17th century literature. Moving to Melbourne in 2004 to complete his
Honours in English Literature, Matthew developed a thesis based on
the carnivalesque aspects of modern music. Matthew is currently
developing a career as a freelance writer and enjoys the theatre
whenever he can.
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