CityLife

Marrying the Mistress @ The Lowry

JOANNA TROLLOPE says she wants us to talk about the family situation in Marrying The Mistress as we go home from the theatre - and we did.

It's not maybe an everyday story for 62-year-old grandpa to divorce granny

because of a mistress younger than his children. But the emotional tug of war between a wife and her mother-in-law is common enough, and the speech where Carrie (the wife: Caroline Langrishe) tells Laura (the mother-in-law: Polly Adams) what she thinks of her got the biggest round of applause of the night. Family life as spectator sport is how David Taylor adapts the novel: comedy of manners first, and audience-involving battle later. In a rapid sequence of short scenes, it leaves you to do the thinking after the show.

Much has had to be simplified, and while Carrie and husband Simon (Adrian Lukis) become believable characters, along with Jack (Mat Ruttle), others are more cardboard. But the multi-location set, with a few deft sound effects, does work well.

Until Saturday.

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