Stanley Houghton’s 1910 play Hindle Wakes is a classic play from the Manchester School of playwrights, yet retains a 21st century relevance.
Mr and Mrs Hawthorn wait in their house for their daughter, Fanny, to return from her Wakes trip (the traditional holiday when mill towns switched off and downed tools).
Set across a 24 hour span in two locations, Hindle Wakes considers morality, authority, and sexuality as it focuses on Fanny, the weaver, and Alan, the millowner’s son, and the fallout of that fateful weekend.
Chris Hawthorn and Nat Jeffcote grew up together and remain friends despite Jeffcote attaining wealth and power. Young Jeffcote is engaged to Beatrice, an heiress, but will old-fashioned values hold out?
Houghton’s ear for the Lancashire dialect and his creation of a strong female character in Fanny Hawthorn make this play an absorbing watch. Caught in a lie, Fanny is very much in the ‘I’ll do what I like’ mould.
Issues around propriety, fancy, gossip, position, and ambition are all in the mix as a solution is sought for Fanny and Alan’s dilemma. It’s notable that the fathers in particular are co-conspirators in deciding their children’s futures.
The mothers are symbolic wives with Mrs Hawthorn displaying an affronted righteousness, and Mrs Jeffcote a compliant frustration. Fanny is cut from very different cloth, speaking her mind and making her own way, whatever the cost.
The change of scene between the modest Hawthorn home with its teapot and china, and the affluent Jeffcote home with servants, bay window, and whisky decanter, is briskly regimented and entertaining, led by a team of maids under Ada (Patricia O’Brien)’s supervision.
Strong performances throughout lift this timely and welcome revival. Anthony Curran, Fiona Partington, and Katie Russell are the Hawthorns; James Gooden, Clare Cooper, and Daniel Thompson are the Jeffcotes; Adam Kimmell and Maria Thorpe are the Farrars.
Bethany Nias’s set captures the social differences well, while Russell Fleet’s sound suggests an industrial setting. Caught in time, place, and religion, Hindle Wakes has a surprising depth and complexity.
4 stars.
Hindle Wakes continues at the Questors Studio until 25 Oct with tickets here.
Image credit: Kanako Hata