The Daughter-in-Law Review
The Daughter-in-Law
Reviewed by Lucy Knight
The Daughter in-Law is set in the 1912 miners strike and tells the tale of the Gascoigne family – two sons, a domineering mother and the eldest son’s new wife.
The play opens in the family home of Mrs Gascoigne, however the main setting for the play is mainly the kitchen of newlyweds Luther and Minnie Gascoigne. The focus of the play is based entirely upon the interaction of the characters on stage, nevertheless the main incident in the play, has taken part before the play begins and has a big impact on the events ahead.
During the time at Mrs Gascoigne’s house we see young Joe with a broken arm telling his mother how he has been refused compensation for his injury because he had been larking about at his job at the mine, however worse news is on the horizon when neighbour Mrs Purdy arrives to tell how her daughter has fallen pregnant to Joes brother Luther.
This news trigger the following events, with Mrs Purdy going to Luther’s house to ask for money to be ‘paid off’, although before she arrives Joe turns up and insults Minnie by breaking her new dinner service to get her out of the way.
When finding out of his little mishap, Luther decides to tell Minnie of his problem thinking that she already knows, this turns into a full blown row because Luther refused to take money from his wife to pay £40 towards his child, this ended with Minnie going to Manchester and spending her £100 which she inherited from her uncle when he passed away.
The play shows the miners view that they had to fight for pay and conditions to save their jobs, in addition to Minnie’s observation that if we work hard enough then anyone can do well for themselves. Nonetheless the main theme was the mother’s treatment of her sons, and how her mothering prevented them from giving themselves truly to their wives.
While the play was interesting and quite funny at times, it was written in a thick Nottingham dialect which was quite hard to understand at first, although after a while it got easier and was nice to hear the old fashioned words and expressions used.
The acting in this performance was superb and very believable. I very much enjoyed this play and would recommend it.
Rating: 4/5
Showing: Thu 23 February – Sat 10 March 2012
For more information or to book tickets visit: www.thelowry.com/event/daughter-in-law