Synopsis
Horniman's Choice - Four One-Act Plays from the Manchester School of Playwrights
Harold Brighouse & Stanley Houghton & Allan Monkhouse
Published by Oberon
In 1907, Annie Horniman established the first repertory theatre in Britain, the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester
As well as staging classic plays, she championed new and local writers, in particular three men who became known as the 'Manchester School' of playwrights, notably Harold Brighouse, Stanley Houghton and Allan Monkhouse.
Horniman's Choice brings together four forgotten plays by the 'Manchester School' to celebrate Annie Horniman's influence
Presenting four different early twentieth century Lancashire settings in the mines, the mills, the home and the front line these plays explore community, responsibility and loss
The plays are ...
THE PRICE OF COAL ~ Harold Brighouse
1909 - Collier Jack Tyldesley heads off at 5.30am for another day's hard graft at the coalface
His lover, Mary Bradshaw, has promised to answer his marriage proposal when he returns home
But Jack's mother is haunted by premonitions of disaster
LONESOME LIKE ~ Harold Brighouse
1911 - Sarah Ormerod has worked in a Lancashire mill for many years, but age and hard work have taken their toll
When she loses the use of her hands, she is condemned to spend the rest of her days in the workhouse - unless someone can help her
Without a welfare state, what happens to the elderly and disabled?
THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW ~ Stanley Houghton
1914 - Christopher Battersby is a devout Christian, running his household in strict and obsessive accordance with the Old Testament
But when his daughter runs off to London with an unsuitable man, he struggles with his faith and the limits of what he can forgive
NIGHT WATCHES ~ Allan Monkhouse
1916 - The trenches, where a new orderly begins work on the night shift at a Red Cross hospital, only to find that two of the patients are more comically surprising and disruptive that they first seemed