How religiously should revivals of old plays observe the author’s original intentions and stage directions? D.H. Lawrence’s ghost would surely be bemused to find that he has a play at the National Theatre called Husbands & Sons, as he wrote no such script. Director Marianne Elliott and adapter Ben Power have plaited three of his one-act dramas – The Daughter-in-Law, The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd and A Collier’s Friday Night – into a single play that cuts between a trio of households in the Midlands mining community of Eastwood in 1911.The terraced residences are represented by architectural diagrams on the floor of Bunny Christie’s wall-less set, with Lucy Carter’s lighting directing the audience’s eyes between the clans. At the Holroyd&rs
12 November 2015, The Tablet
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