<b>WHEN WE ARE MARRIED</b> Royal George Theatre/Shaw Festival SpeakupWNY | Buffalo NY and Buffalo News

Shaw Festival
Through October 26
WHEN WE ARE MARRIED Royal George Theatre/Shaw Festival

There is an alternative to getting a divorce.
What if you were never married at all and learned about it after years of marriage and family and career?
That’s what J.B. Priestley’s “When We Are Married” is about, three obnoxious couples who discover the minister who married them wasn’t legally equipped to do it.
When married together in 1912, the three couples were young and ambitious.
Now, a quarter of a century later, they are prosperous and successful and powers in an important religious chapel in Clecklewyke, Priestley’s stand-in for his birthplace in Bradford in England’s North.
They are among The Powers That Be and proud of it, in a town built on the wool trade and the Chapel rather than the Church crowd of the Church of England.
They are in the clearly prosperous home of of Alderman Joseph Helliwell (Thom Marriott) and wife Maria (Claire Jullien), with the expectable misbehaving servants, especially the inexperienced Ruby Birtle (Jennifer Dzialoszynski) and the drunk Mrs. Northrop (Mary Haney) who listens at keyholes and is to be fired that night.
This is a party of note, with the local daily newspaper sending a reporter and photographer because they are important people, Helliwell, Councillor Albert Parker (Patrick McManus) and wife Annie (Catherine McGregor) and lawyer Herbert Soppitt (Patrick Galligan) and wife Clara (Kate Hennig).
Parker is angling to be mayor and thinks an occasion like this is good PR.
These are such important people they don’t always know what’s going on.
The three guys are also holding a meeting to fire Gerald Forbes (Charlie Gallant) the organist and choirmaster in their chapel.
Parker says he’s a Southerner (which probably means that he’s from London) and they are Northerners, always an important distinction in England.
One criticism is that he’s sneaking around with women unapproved by the chapel.
Helliwell doesn’t realize it’s his niece Nancy (Kate Besworth) and the couple is close to engagement.
The happy occasion comes to an abrupt halt when Forbes decides he’s in trouble and pulls out a letter from the minister who married them and left for missionary work in Africa and admits he didn’t have the legal power to marry the couples.
They aren’t legally married and that’s panic.
The word starts spreading, not just to the wives but around the community because Mrs. Northrop is fired and cheated on her wages and she takes the word to her local pub.
The men panic and the wives start studying their situation and don’t completely like their marriages, especially when Lottie Grady (Fiona Byrne) shows up and she has been involved in a backroom affair with Helliwell, who says he can’t marry her because he’s married and now, he’s not.
There’s also the drunken newspaper photographer Henry Ormonroyd (Peter Krantz), who brings further complications.
It’s all funny and well-plotted because the situation does occasionally happen.
Director Joseph Ziegler does a wonderful job with this, with the little touches like the way the three women start in lockstep as they realize the men are trying to do bad things to them and try to pretend nothing has happened and nothing has changed.
That’s especially true with McManus’ Councillor Parker who has no idea his wife is angry over his stuffiness and stinginess and isn’t aware he’s both.
Helliwell?
Well, he’s in trouble and knows it.
Nancy and Gerald are taking advantage of the mess to look seriously at getting married.
Ormonroyd actually knows how to resolve the situation because he can’t do it for himself.
This is an absolutely entertaining play, with some serious social commentary about a time which seems even farther back than it is.
Director Joseph Ziegler keeps a tight hand on a play which could easily turn into an overdone farce without care.
He also has Ken MacDonald’s set and Sue LePage’s well-realized period costumes.
This is a strong cast, especially Marriott and McManus, Jullien and McGregor, Krantz and Haney and the usual strong set of spear carriers.
The Shaw Festival has kept J.B. Priestley on the theatrical message board for years after he was simply forgotten, as it has kept other writers in the public consciousness, like this year’s “The Charity That Begins at Home” from St. John Hankin.
It’s a little early in the Shaw season for everything to be open, but “When We are Married” should be on your must-see list.

A.W.