PicksInSix Review: RUTHERFORD AND SON TimeLine Theatre Company
GREED AND POWER THREATEN ‘RUTHERFORD’ LEGACY
In the shadowy, generational storyline, that evolves over a period of days in Githa Sowerby’s “Rutherford and Son,” a 1912 parlor drama briskly directed by Mechelle Moe and now playing in its Chicago premiere at TimeLine Theatre, the domineering family patriarch, John Rutherford (a rugged and worthy Francis Guinan), and his three children live under the same Victorian roof and feed off the success of the Rutherford family glass business. Rutherford, the major employer, controls the tempo and the citizens of the region, and he has benefited greatly from both the control and the company prosperity.
As the play opens, it is clear that the business, as well as the class system that created it, is on life-support and times are about to change—events that threaten to tear apart the Rutherford family.
Rutherford’s eldest son and heir apparent, John (a brooding Michael Holding), along with his wife Mary (played with quiet resolve by Rochelle Therrien) and newborn son, represent the future idealists of the turn-of-the-century Industrial Revolution. If not for his personal ambition to do otherwise, John could easily bide his time and take control of the business when his time comes. That scenario, however, does not fit into John’s long-range plan. He has developed a new formula for metal with enormous financial potential, but he so distrusts his father’s greed that he has kept the details a closely guarded secret. This he entrusts to only one person: Martin (a solid performance by Matt Bowdren), who has served as supervisor at Rutherford and friend to John since their youth. Martin seems to be an upstanding commoner who has done well as the trusted adviser to the elder Rutherford.
With the developing power struggle between father and son, over-arching themes in Sowerby’s work emerge in John’s other siblings--Janet (a finely nuanced turn by Christina Gorman), who first appears as a spinster ensconced in servitude to her father in the aging family home, and Richard (a gem for August Forman), a young priest in the parish with an ear to the ground—as they alternate between respect and fear for their father and the growing family friction. Jeannie Affelder beautifully portrays two other characters who play into this drama: Ann, Rutherford’s sister, who lives out her life presumably as it began; in the security and comfort of the Rutherford home; and Mrs. Henderson, who appears at Rutherford’s home to defend her son, who has been accused of stealing and dismissed from the plant.
When “Rutherford and Son” debuted more than a century ago under the pen name K. G. Sowerby, it gained notoriety and critical acclaim for Sowerby for its cutting-edge feminist views on class and gender roles of the time. It was later revealed that Sowerby was a woman and according to TimeLine’s contextual documentation, the power of the work and other factors, including the playwright’s reluctance to expand upon the personal connection of the characters in the play to her own family’s glassworks business, raised critical objections. The work eventually faded into obscurity after its initial successful runs, only to be revived briefly in a series of productions in 1980s England. Scenic designer Michelle Lily and costume designer Alexia Rutherford, with Brandon Wardell’s lighting design, create a lush yet timeworn period interior of the Rutherford home.
What begins as a conflict between industrial titans to salvage a vestige of their family legacy for economic survival turns sharply into a study of the collapse of family values, the futility of gender and class barriers at the time, and a stark realization that very little could be done to defend the oppressive attitudes toward women at all levels of society except to broker a route for future generations and the hope of change.
PHOTOS|Amy Boyle Photography
Note: The originally published version of this review misidentified the roles of Michael Holding and Matt Bowdren. We apologize for the oversight. et
TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY
Presents
RUTHERFORD AND SON
through January 12, 2020
615 W. WELLINGTON AVENUE
(773) 281-8463
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