Stanley Houghton's progressive drama of class dynamics and sexual morality celebrates its centenary with a lively, boisterous but ultimately confused revival. 'Hindle Wakes' focuses on the aftermath of an unmarried couple's 'dirty weekend' in Llandudno, which throws a spanner in the marital machinations of two prosperous families.
Houghton's script is well observed and awake to new and untraced boundaries between classes which had emerged with the suddenness of industrial progress. His work owes a debt to Ibsen, particularly in its then-controversial sexual frankness and proto-feminism, as well as to Chekhov in its neat balancing of the comic and the dramatically truthful.
This delicacy is ignored by Bethan Dear's direction, which often treats the play as little more than a broad comedy. Unconcerned whether the audience are laughing with Broughton's occasional witticisms or at the naivety of his plotting, Dear collapses the play down into farce.
Her sitcom-esque direction is all the more frustrating because there are some strong performances, particularly Peter Ellis who exudes a punctured dignity as henpecked father Christopher Hawthorn. Similarly, an attractive set by Holly Seager is let down by fussy and wholly unnecessary scene-changes, where the swapping of tablecloths and shifting of chairs only serves to make 'Hindle Wakes' seem dustier and creakier than it really is.