Rutherford and Son, National Theatre

Githa Sowerby is not well known today, but back in 1912 she became a highly successful playwright at a time when female voices were rarely heard onstage. Her play Rutherford and Son was an overnight blockbuster, one critic declaring it ‘one of the most powerful works of the younger generation’. The Lyttelton Theatre is now reviving her lost masterpiece for a modern audience.

The play sees Roger Allam (Les Miserables, The Thick of It) cast as John Rutherford, the domineering CEO of a glass factory in Glasgow. Unrestrained by trivialities like Unions or Women’s Rights, Rutherford’s constant bullying of workers and family in pursuit of profit inevitably lead his family down the road to oblivion. Prepare for Allam’s classic angry old man persona, immortalised by his jowl-wobbling yells as The Thick of It's Conservative Minister Peter Mannion.

This role won't be played for laughs though. The plot and this brooding photo all point to Allam being given the chance to show the dangerous and destructive side to angry old men, demonstrating what a flawed character with unrestrained power can do to the bonds that tie a family together. We look forward to old-time National director Polly Findlay's interpretation of Sowerby’s distant, pioneering voice of contempt.

Booking for Rutherford and Sons at the National Theatre opens at 8:30am on Friday 15th February.