Hobson's Choice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hobson's Choice is a play by Harold Brighouse, the title coming from the popular expression, Hobson's choice — meaning no choice at all.
The play was first produced in America, the first English production being on June 24 1916 in London. The story is set in Salford in 1880.
[edit] Plot
The plot revolves around Willie Mossop, a gifted, but unappreciated shoemaker employed by the domineering Henry Horatio Hobson. Semi-literate and content with his lot, he is persuaded by Hobson's eldest daughter, Maggie (over the hill by Victorian terms at the ripe old age of 30), into marrying her and setting up in a shop of his own. Maggie and her two younger sisters Alice and Vickey have worked most of their lives in their father's store without wages and are eager to be married and out of the shop. Alice is engaged to Albert Prosser, a young up-and-coming solicitor, and Vickey to Fred Beenstock, son of a respectable corn merchant.
Between her sales skill and his shoemaking talent, Maggie and Willie's enterprise is very successful and, within a year, he's taken nearly all Hobson's trade and has grown in confidence. At Maggie's urging, Willie goes into partnership with Hobson, now an almost-bankrupt alcoholic, on condition that Hobson take no further part in the business.
[edit] Film and television adaptions
The play has been filmed several times, originally as a silent film with Joan Ritz as Maggie and Arthur Pitt as her father. It was filmed again, this time with sound, in 1931, with James Harcourt as Hobson, Frank Pettingell as Mossop, Joan Maude as Alice, and Viola Lyel as Maggie.
The best-known film version is that of 1954 directed by David Lean. It starred Charles Laughton as Hobson and Brenda De Banzie as Maggie. John Mills played Will Mossop, Maggie's suitor, and Prunella Scales made her second film appearance as Vicky Hobson.
It was Americanized in the 1983 TV version. It was set in 1914 New Orleans starring Jack Warden as Hobson and Sharon Gless as Maggie. The 1966 Broadway play Walking Happy tells the original story.
“Hobson’s Choice,” an English ballet adaptation of Harold Brighouse's play of the same title with choreography by David Bintley and music by Paul Reade, premiered on February 13, 1989 by Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, London. A video production of the ballet has been seen on television broadcasts, and released on DVD.
