Husbands and Sons, National Theatre ***

My English teacher tells our class that 'it is better to write a lot about a little than a little about a lot.' This, for me, is the downfall of Ben Powers adaptation of three D. H. Lawrence. Perhaps it would be truer to say that Powers has constructed a play that investigates a lot about a lot. Running at three hours, the plays about families in mining village Eastwood never really merge together and remain three separate stories which need three separate productions to make them interesting rather than long-winded and tiresome. Despite this, Marianne Elliot has staged it in a way that tries to engage and emphasise the brilliance of Lawrence. Bunny Christie's set neatly conveys the background of mining with the dirt, grime and darkness of the show with each house, whilst similar, has their distinctions to show the family's place in the social hierarchy. For me, the main family which the piece concentrates on is the Gascgoine family yet the Holroyds and Lamberts get a pretty even share of the running time. It centres around the role of women in mining towns and their role extremely well, putting Lousie Brealey, Anne- Marrie Duff and Julia Ford in the main roles, each with their own struggles which each actor pulls off with feeling and emotional depth. The male characters are mostly unsympathetic characters and, even when they show feeling, their thoughts are usually driven by egoistic and physical means which may be an unfair representation of society but serves the play very well. This is a struggle to sit through and not entirely satisfying but undoubtedly intelligent and interesting interpretation of Lawrence's plays.