THE revival of Hobson's Choice, best known for the film version starring John Mills and Charles Laughton, seemed a somewhat odd choice by recently appointed Birmingham Rep artistic director Jonathan Church, being a period piece - 1880 to be exact - if ever there was one.
But the hordes of young people who swelled a near-capacity audience at The Rep last Monday gave the game away. The play by Harold Brighouse is a set text at school.
Gifted but much put-upon shoemaker Albert Prosser is pressed into marriage and a breakaway business partnership by the ageing daughter of his boss, curmudgeonly shopowner and widower Henry Hobson.
Andrew Fishwick, making his professional stage debut as Prosser, is engagingly awkward, while Tony Britton (Hobson), harrumphs and deflates to good effect. The sets are very good.
The play, given a lively outing here, is obviously still popular with older theatregoers but I would be very interested to know what younger viewers made of this now antiquated slice of northern life.
PW
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