The Manchester School of sentimental realism flourished at the Gaiety Theatre under the auspices of Annie Horniman and was just as important in the history of the early 20th century British theatre as London’s Royal Court had been under Harley Granville Barker. The plays of Harold Brighouse, Stanley Houghton and Allan Monkhouse in particular deserve to be seen more often; but the only one to be regularly revived is Brighouse’s Hobson’s Choice.
30-year-old Maggie Hobson (Jodie McNee), who works at her father’s boot shop in Salford, decides that there is only one thing to be done if she is not to remain on the shelf for the rest of her life and that is to marry Willie Mossop (Karl Davies), her father’s master boot-maker. She reckons that with her brains and his hands they will make an unbeatable commercial partnership. Maggie is a no-nonsense sort of woman and she’s used to ordering people about and getting her own way. So she proposes and Mossop, who has no say in the matter, finds he is married.
The comedy, written in 1915, was deliberately set back in the 1880’s. Director Nadia Fall has brought it forward to the 1960’s and added songs by Sinatra and The Beatles. The updating jars. But the charm of the play and the performances of McNee, Davies and Mark Benton (as the blustering, bullying windbag father) still give a lot of pleasure.