How Was The Show - Guthrie Theater at The Guthrie Theater

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When We Are Married at The Guthrie Theater on 7/10/09

Patricia Conolly (Clara Soppitt), Peter Michael Goetz (Herbert Soppitt), Raye Birk (Councillor Albert Parker), Dennis Creaghan (Alderman Joseph Helliwell) and Helen Carey (Maria Helliwell) in the Guthrie production of J.B. Priestley's When We Are Married. Photo credit: T Charles Erickson

It's the most enduring image in the play and J.B. Priestly leaves it to our imagination: three freshly married couples posing for a sepia-toned photograph, dressed, we imagine, in stiff Edwardian togs, hair slicked back (the men) or piled high (women), the hands of the husbands resting lightly on their new brides' shoulders, everyone smiling rigidly. For 25 years these resolutely proper upper-middle class characters have been sustained by the memory of that happy day.

And then they discover that the marrying vicar, way back when, hadn't been properly licensed and that as a result – Quelle horreur! – their marriages are null and void. Quickly we, and they, discover that, for these folks, marriage amounts to a legal technicality, a piece of paper now no longer valid. Cut loose from lawful restraints, they find themselves free to perceive their relationships, their identities, the world around them in a new and deliciously comic light. As one of the men exclaims, an impish smile growing, "I feel peculiar."

Do you buy it? It was a thin concept when When We Are Married (on the Guthrie's Wurtele Stage, through August 30, guthrietheater.org) was first produced (in 1938) and it's even thinner now. Nevertheless Priestly uses it to build a brisk and surprisingly successful three act drawing room comedy. That it works is due mainly to the immense skills of the Guthrie cast.

One henpecked husband (Peter Michael Goetz, in a grandly funny performance) begins to stand up to his domineering wife (the marvelous Patricia Connolly). These two alone are worth the ticket fare. Another wife (Linda Kelsey) can now tell her pompous husband (Raye Birk) what a stingy dullard he has become. The devil-may-care jezebel (Sally Wingert) arrives to see if she can turn her flirtation with the confused host (Dennis Creaghan) into a real relationship. And to play the piano. But his wife (Helen Carey), the most grounded of these increasingly frazzled folks, will have none of it. There are also familiar stock characters: the young lovers (Christine Weber and Jonas Glasgow), the effervescent young maid (Maggie Chestovich) and, of course, the crusty old housekeeper (the astonishing Barbara Bryne). Colin McPhillamy as the dipsomaniacal photographer is a hoot. The actors are uniformly terrific.

As hardly needs to be said about the Guthrie, the director, John Miller-Stephany, directs with a steady but light hand and does the smart thing: stays out of the actors way. The designers (Frank Hallinan Flood, Mathew J. Lefebre, Marcus Dilliard and Scott W. Edwards) serve up sumptuous drawing room, amazing costumes and spot on lighting and sound. This show is easy on the eyes.

Such a pleasure to see these stalwarts once again gracing the Guthrie stage. Goetz (70 productions), Wingert (75), Conolly (a mere 15), Birk (17), Carey (25). A couple of centuries of combined theatre experience. And of course, Barbara Byrne (60 plus productions), a diminutive woman who makes time stop every time she steps onstage. This is a unique opportunity to see these treasures gathered together – and it's the real reason to see this play.

Location Info: The Guthrie Theater
Artist Info: Guthrie Theater

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