Stiffling Motherhood

“I would cut off my hands and burn out my eyes to rid my son of you. . .”

Mother

“What I say about children is this: have ’em, love ’em, leave ’em be.”

Hester

 

Cast. (Photo: Carla Joy Evans)

Sidney Howard called his play The Silver Cord, a comedy.  It was a huge hit in London in the 1920s and is revived here by the Finborough, ever widening our knowledge of theatre history. 

Set in Boston Massachusetts in 1926, David Phelps (George Watkins) has come home for the first time in two years to his family home.  He is accompanied by his wife Christina (Alix Dunmore).  This is the first time his mother, not accorded a first name but only that of Mrs Phelps (Sophie Ward), has met his wife.  At home is David’s younger brother Rob (Dario Coates) and his fiancée Hester (Jemma Carlton).

Mrs Phelps seems to approve initially of Christina when she commends David on having the best taste of her two sons in choosing Christina.  No compliment comes without a barb from Mrs Phelps.  I think she said this when Rob and Hester could hear her.  She is outrageous, malicious and controlling but I failed to find her funny.  Maybe Sophie Ward’s impressive portrayal was too believable to be taken anything but seriously? 

Jemma Carlton as Hester and Dario Coates as Robert with back of Sophie Ward as Mrs Phelps. (Photo: Carla Joy Evans)

We slowly learn here what may have turned her into this monster.  A disappointing marriage and probably a dislike of sex within a few weeks of her marriage.  She is now a widow.  She also had two very painful childbirths with each boy.  There are no other outlets for her energies and ability, no employment, no education, no religion, no parents to care for, other than to throw herself into raising her sons and embroidering cross stitch.  By contrast with her mother in law, Christina is that oddity in 1926 of a woman career scientist in biology with the offer of a research post at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. 

Mrs Phelps has mapped out David’s future as an architect with a plot of local land ripe for development.  She is appalled that he has been to so many places in Europe with Christina that she wished to travel to with David. 

The performances are very fine, especially Sophie Ward’s domineering, wheedling and manipulative matriarch. I liked also Jemma Carlton’s Hester who has some of the most perceptive lines in the play. 

The umbilical silver cord should have been severed decades earlier and at almost three hours the play is a long haul in the oppressive Phelps family.  I am at a loss to know how it could be played as a comedy when we would be free to laugh at the pain being lashed out to the women in her son’s lives, other than by caricaturing the Phelps harridan

Sophie Ward as Mrs Phelps (Photo: Carla Joy Evans)

Production Notes

The Silver Cord

Written by Sidney Howard

Directed by Joe Harmston

Cast

Starring:

Jemma Carlton

George Watkins

Alix Dunmore

Dario Coates

Sophie Ward

Creatives

Director: Joe Harmston

Set Designer:  Alex Marker

Costume Designer: Carla Joy Evans

Lighting Designer: Mike Robertson

Sound Designer: Amanda Priestley

Information

Running Time: Two hours 55 minutes with an interval

Booking to 28th September 2024

 

Theatre:  

Finborough Theatre

118 Finborough Road

Earls Court

London

SW10 9ED

Box Office: www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk

Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge

at the Finborough

on  5th September 2024