Rutherford and Son Tickets

London

23 May 2019 - 3 Aug 2019

Rutherford and Son Information

A piercing look at power and family.

Roger Allam (Les Misérables, The Thick of It) returns to the National for the first time in a decade to play Rutherford in this new production directed by Polly Findlay (Beginning).

In a Northern industrial town, John Rutherford rules both factory and family with an iron will. But even as the furnaces burn relentlessly at the Glassworks, at home his children begin to turn against him.

Githa Sowerby's astonishing play was inspired by her own experience of growing up in a family-run factory in Gateshead. Writing in 1912, when female voices were seldom heard on British stages, she now claims her place alongside Ibsen and Bernard Shaw with this searing depiction of class, gender and generational warfare.

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Run time

Approx 2hrs 45mins (inc. interval)

Opening date

May 23rd, 2019

Closing date

August 3rd, 2019

Venue

Lyttelton Theatre

Cast and creative

By: Githa Sowerby
Director: Polly Findlay
Cast list: Roger Allam, Chris Anderson, Sue Appleby, Joe Armstrong, Joe Evans, Nick Harris, Harry Hepple, Barbara Marten, Nicola May-Taylor, Jules Melvin, Justine Mitchell, Sally Rogers, Sam Troughton and Anjana Vasan

Our review

Review - Rutherford and Son at the National Theatre

4/5

"Rarely-seen" is all relative: Githa Sowerby's play, written in 1912, may not exactly be a theatrical standard, but it was last seen in London in 2013 in a transfer for Northern Broadsides' production from Halifax to what is now The Other Palace, when it was directed by the veteran Jonathan Miller. Before that, it had been revived at the National in 1994 by Katie Mitchell, in a production starring the late, great Bob Peck in what is now the Dorfman; now it claims its place once again on the...

29 May 2019, 00:00