... review of the Road to Ruin ...
The Road to Ruin by Thomas Holcroft, at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond.
Set in 1792 the play is a satirical look at the world of high finance, respectability and the decadence of youth.
Mr Dorntorn, the senior partner of The House of Dornton, is at one minute ordering his servants to look the doors against his son Harry, a wastrel. He gives strict orders to his servant not to assist or feed his son and then chastises the servant for obeying his instructions.
However Harry's spending on gambling, clothing and making reckless loans gets into the scandal pages of the newspapers and this causes a run on the bank, which looks like closing the business.
A subplot involves John Milford, the late Alderman Warren's illegitimate son, who is broke and facing ruin, but has been cut off by the Alderman's widow. The widow is set to get £150,000, a vast sum of money those days.
She is being persued in marriage by Mr Goldfinch, who has a desperate need to top his finances due to his gambling debts and his hobby of racing carts - having hurt no-one 'cept a solitary woman and child'. The widow in turn is in love with Harry Dornton, who plays up to her so that he can see the extremely beautiful, but innocent Sophie, the widow's daughter by her first marriage.
There is rumours of a new Alderman's will which, by bad luck ends up in the hands of a money lender, rather than the Alderman's trustee. The money lender makes a deal with Mr Goldfinch to fix his marriage to the widow if he is paid £50,000 of the legacy. Mr Goldfinch also bribes the Widow's maid to help him.
While this is going on the House of Denton looks like it is going to the wall and Harry Denton decides to save the situation by agreeing to marry the widow. Eventually everything is resolved when Harry and the Alderman's trustee hide and denounce the money lender and the widow. Father and son are reunited when it turns out that a lot of his son's money was given to help others.
The cast were - well extremely well cast with Auriol Smith, really relishing the part of the widow. Terrence Hardiman, the father, with his constantly hot and coldattitudee to his son was enjoyable. Two of the smaller parts the manipulative widow's maid, with her very expressive eyes, played by Louise Yates, and John Paul Connolly's portrayal of Mr Goldfinch, the over the top, gambling, sporty Irish were particularly enjoyable. I likedparticularlyy his race commentary when trying to lure Harry Dornton backing in the gambling fraternity.
The play with its deceit, counter deceit, manipulation,double crosss and cheating for money, love and social position has a lot of relevance in todays world.
Pau Odtaa
Set in 1792 the play is a satirical look at the world of high finance, respectability and the decadence of youth.
Mr Dorntorn, the senior partner of The House of Dornton, is at one minute ordering his servants to look the doors against his son Harry, a wastrel. He gives strict orders to his servant not to assist or feed his son and then chastises the servant for obeying his instructions.
However Harry's spending on gambling, clothing and making reckless loans gets into the scandal pages of the newspapers and this causes a run on the bank, which looks like closing the business.
A subplot involves John Milford, the late Alderman Warren's illegitimate son, who is broke and facing ruin, but has been cut off by the Alderman's widow. The widow is set to get £150,000, a vast sum of money those days.
She is being persued in marriage by Mr Goldfinch, who has a desperate need to top his finances due to his gambling debts and his hobby of racing carts - having hurt no-one 'cept a solitary woman and child'. The widow in turn is in love with Harry Dornton, who plays up to her so that he can see the extremely beautiful, but innocent Sophie, the widow's daughter by her first marriage.
There is rumours of a new Alderman's will which, by bad luck ends up in the hands of a money lender, rather than the Alderman's trustee. The money lender makes a deal with Mr Goldfinch to fix his marriage to the widow if he is paid £50,000 of the legacy. Mr Goldfinch also bribes the Widow's maid to help him.
While this is going on the House of Denton looks like it is going to the wall and Harry Denton decides to save the situation by agreeing to marry the widow. Eventually everything is resolved when Harry and the Alderman's trustee hide and denounce the money lender and the widow. Father and son are reunited when it turns out that a lot of his son's money was given to help others.
The cast were - well extremely well cast with Auriol Smith, really relishing the part of the widow. Terrence Hardiman, the father, with his constantly hot and coldattitudee to his son was enjoyable. Two of the smaller parts the manipulative widow's maid, with her very expressive eyes, played by Louise Yates, and John Paul Connolly's portrayal of Mr Goldfinch, the over the top, gambling, sporty Irish were particularly enjoyable. I likedparticularlyy his race commentary when trying to lure Harry Dornton backing in the gambling fraternity.
The play with its deceit, counter deceit, manipulation,double crosss and cheating for money, love and social position has a lot of relevance in todays world.
Pau Odtaa
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