Theatre Royal Windsor: Hobson's Choice ****

10:03am Friday 7th March 2008

Startingly brilliant and wonderful in its composure, Hobson's Choice is a masterpiece of British theatre.

That theatre-goers in Windsor were given the choice to see it or not was a master stroke by Theatre Royal owner impresario, Bill Kenwright. And you were foolish if you left it rather than taking it.

This play by Harold Brighouse has been a staple of our theatres since 1916 and, of course, a stunning 1953 David Lean film. It has been revived many times but this delightful version directed by Jonathan Church is going to be hard to better. John Savident of Coronation Street's Fred Elliot fame, plays widowed Salford bootmaker Henry Hobson - he likes a drink. His three daughters, Maggie (Carolyn Backhouse), Alice (Jenni Maitland) and Vickey (Holly Goss), run the shop as he is mostly absent. However, Maggie has bigger ideas and sets out to marry unlikely hero William Mossop - Hobson's bootmaker, the best around.

What transpires leaves Hobson with no choice as Maggie gets her man, transforms him into the man he always knew he could be and arranges the marriages of her two sisters to the "right men". In the process she first leaves her father's non-paid employment to set up her own shop with Mossop (Dylan Charles) and then contrives a legal wrangle to socially blackmail Hobson into changing his ways after he drunkenly falls into a business cellar, sparking a law suit.

This is British writing, humour and social commentary at its finest. We laugh because it's funny, we laugh because we know, unfortunately, how true it is to life and if you don't laugh, you cry.

Savident is immense in character as the pompous small town successful businessman. His Hobson should be as remembered and admired on stage as much as Charles Laughton's in Lean's screen classic. He brings a tragic, tearful tone to Hobson. A rogue, a fool and an arrogant control freak who disregards even his own daughters as women who can be downtrodden workers for his cause, Savident oozes Edwardian snobbery. He is as compelling as he is undesirable.

This is a magnificent production by the Chichester Festival Theatre group. The whole cast is creatively superb, crafting a world of woe overcome by working class determination. Poignant and rich in character chemistry, Hobson's Choice is delightfully touching. It's gut-cuddlingly funny and superbly acted. Please come back.

Until Saturday, March 8 Paul Thomas

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