LITTLE THEATRE TO DO "HOBSON'S CHOICE"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 119, 5 June 1937, Page 16

LITTLE THEATRE TO DO "HOBSON'S CHOICE"

The Hawke's Bay Little Theatre Society is presenting, as its first big play this year Harold Brighouse's Lancashire comedy " Hobson 's Choice." In more respects than one this production will mark a departure from the type of play produced for several years by the society. Its date is 1880 — the period 'when anti-macassars, bustles and imperialism lilled the minds of Englishmen. Not that Hobson himself worried mueh about imperialism. That, rather, was the concem of his thTee daughters, all of whom decided to Ieave thcir father's bootshop and make homes for themselves with husbands of their own choosing. • It is a play of character rather than of event, as is the case with most of Brighouse's work. Given lively dialogne, a succession of entertaining situations, and three superbly comic principals, the play manages to give a splendid picture of the worki: middle class in Lancashire. " Hobson 's Choice," as is to be expected in a provincial play, deals e& pecially with one occupation. This occupation is the boot trade. All the characters are either directly or indirectly concerned with boots— and with trade. They are busy, cheerful people, intent, as Hobson 's eldest daughter says, "to go through life for the best we can get out of it." The play is being produc d by Mr. Stanley Warwick, and will be staged for one night only in- the Municipal Theatre, Hastings, on June 28. «.