Hobson's Choice

12 June 2014 - 12 July 2014

By Harold Brighouse

Get one wedding in a family, and it goes through the lot like measles

A comedy from the cobbles of Lancashire, set to the sights and sounds of the sixties, Mark Benton plays bombastic boot-shop owner Henry Horatio Hobson. When his 'plain' daughter, Maggie (Jodie McNee) becomes intent on marrying long-suffering boot-maker Willie Mossop (Karl Davies), Hobson's future looks uncertain. However it is hapless Willie who triumphs in this unlikely love story, as newfound fortitude deals a resolution that is - Hobson's Choice.

Evening Standard

"Nadia Fall's BRIGHT, BRISK PRODUCTION makes Harold Brighouse's 1915 play feel WONDERFULLY FRESH."

"Jodie McNee is tremendous as Maggie... Mark Benton brings a nice mix of bombast and chaos to Hobson"

Sunday Express

"Harold Brighouse’s CLASSIC COMEDY... Mark Benton plays splendidly as a cross between Falstaff and King Lear."

Daily Telegraph

"The core of the play is the relationship between Jodie McNee’s spirited Maggie and Karl Davies’s deliciously gauche Willie Mossop... both WONDEFULLY FUNNY AND DEEPLY TOUCHING... their growing love BEAUTIFULLY UNDERSCORED by the Gerry and the Pacemakers."

Financial Times

"GENIUS... Nadia Fall’s stock as a director has been rising... now the final, clinching proof of her skills comes in the deceptively bucolic setting of Regent’s Park... A WORK OF MASTERY."

Sunday Telegraph

"Ben Stones’ revolving set is A DELIGHT: Hobson’s Bootshop has seldom, if ever, looked more inviting."

Sunday Times

“Jodie McNee shines as Maggie... A CRACKING SHOW."

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