Theatre review: Rutherford and Son

If it seems like Roger Allam has been building up to playing King Lear for a few years now then Rutherford and Son absolutely feels part of that progression. Although while there’s echoes of Lear in Githa Sowerby’s dictatorial patriarch, even more so he feels like a precursor to Bernarda Alba – trapping his children in dead-end lives for self-destructive reasons of his own – with a story that even suggests Mother Courage in terms of what happens to his legacy. Rutherford owns and runs the Tyneside glassworks founded by his father, which remains the principle employer in his small town. He commands fierce loyalty from his workers, but at home it’s only bullying and intimidation that’s made his children obey him all their lives. For the last few years the glassworks has been operating at a slight loss, and oldest son John (Sam Troughton) has returned after some time in London with a new wife, child, and a formula he believes could cut down production costs significantly and turn around the company’s fortunes.

Theatre review: Rutherford & Son

When Githa Sowerby's Rutherford & Son premiered in 1912 it was an instant hit until it got out that its author was female, at which point it quickly fell out of favour. It's not hard to see why it might cause discomfort in a time when the Suffragettes were in the news, and it might say "son" in the title but it's the daughter - and the daughter-in-law - who ultimately make the biggest impression. John Rutherford (Barrie Rutter) is a domestic tyrant: Having inherited the family business he's turned it into a very successful glassworks through hard work and a ruthless attitude. But this ruthlessness follows him home, where he hopes one of his sons will take over the business and let his name live on after his death. But it's this single-minded determination that they should follow in his footsteps that ends up pushing them away.