When We Are Married – Keighley Playhouse

THE INTRODUCTION to the evening was in the style of a music hall with an Andrew Sachs-esque notice to turn off phones and have a sing-song.

The curtains opened to an Edwardian sitting room set, beautifully decorated, furnished and dressed, which got a well-deserved round of applause from the audience.

I wasn’t sure whether I liked the play or not, as something was bothering me. I realised that this was a definite period piece and must be viewed as such. After that I warmed to the play and enjoyed the acting.

Everyone’s interpretation of their character seemed to fit perfectly (credit to the director Robin Martin) and the play was a pleasure to watch.

There wasn’t a weak link in the cast and the three main couples – played by Ian Wilkinson and Debbie Parks, Anthony Calverts and Wendy Todd, and Mike Ellison and Julia Roberts – played their parts brilliantly.

They bounced off one another in their couples, and were entertaining as their single-sex groups. I especially liked the three ladies in Act Two, with their comical conversation.

From the ‘modern’ man Richard Gardner, to the hired help (a lovely comedy turn from Lorraine Taylor-Parker), the lady visitor here to cause problems (Brenda Moon) and the Reverend ready to help out (Robert Lister) – all came together to make a play that the original ‘Keighley Playhouse’ 67 years ago would have been proud of.

When We Are Married, the famous Northern comedy by JB Priestley about three couples who discover their weddings may have been bogus, was the first play presented by Keighley Playhouse under its original name of Keighley Little Theatre, after Frederick Pye and seven like-minded people came together in 1947 to start a local theatrical society.

Philip Smith