The Wilmslow Green Room's choice of play to open their 2011-2012 season is Stanley Houghton's pioneering drama, 'Independent Means'.
A leading member of the Manchester School of Dramatists, Houghton's play was first performed in 1909 at the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester. It was a great success and portrayed quite forward-thinking views for its time.
Set in the fictional town of Salchester somewhere between Salford and Manchester, the play chronicles the fortunes of an upper class conservative family in the Edwardian age. The play's chief protagonist is Sydney Forsyth (Lindsey Barker), a leftwing suffragette who has married Edgar Forsyth (Mike Palmer) after a very short engagement.
Edgar is staunchly conservative and the son of John Forsyth (Alastair Fowkes). When John Forsyth is bankrupted after speculating the family's capital, they all face disaster but Sydney takes an administrative job prompting her husband to announce that "no decent husband could live off his wife's earnings"...
But Houghton suggests that female independence can be combined with marital harmony and proceeds to examine family values and the contrasting class realities behind everyday life.
Directed by Jan Atkinson, 'Independent Means' runs from Saturday October 8th to Saturday October 15th. Tickets can be purchased on Saturday mornings at the Green Room theatre between 10.30am and 12 noon or via the ticket hotline 01625 540933. Performances begin at 7.45pm. For further information visit the Wilmslow Green Room's website.
This a member post by Hilary Pinnock.
