When We Are Married

Seventy five years of matrimony go up in smoke when three pairs of respectable Edwardian citizens learn that the cleric who married them, on the same day a quarter of a century ago, wasn’t authorised to do so.

J. B Priestley’s 1938 comedy, set in Yorkshire, turns their relationships upside down. Sam Kelly’s underdog Herbert, deliciously relishing his newfound authority, finally puts Maureen Lipman’s battleaxe Clara in her place (and she finds she rather likes it), Michele Dotrice’s Annie temporarily takes the wind out of the bombastic sails of her stingy councillor husband, and the alderman’s wife goes to pieces at the prospect of losing her charwoman as well as her marital status. 

It’s old-fashioned and a little creaky, but Christopher Luscombe’s strongly cast, enjoyable  revival still gets the laughs.

4/5

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Garrick  Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0HH
0844 412 4661/2
Tube: Leicester Square
Until 26th February 
£19.50 – £49.50 

– Louise Kingsley