When We Are Married

Set on a September evening around 1908, J.B. Priestley’s farcical comedy takes place in the sitting-room of Alderman Helliwell’s house. Old friends – the Helliwells, the Parkers and the Soppitts – gather to celebrate the three couples’ silver wedding anniversaries.

Gerald Forbes, the chapel organist and choir master, has been courting the Helliwells’ niece Nancy a bit too conspicuously. But when Gerald is chastised for his behavior, he riles up the party, revealing a shocking truth to these uptight Victorian gentlemen. The secret spreads and soon each couple’s relationship is rigorously and hilariously tested to its limit.

An accomplished British novelist, essayist and playwright, J.B. Priestley is perhaps best known for his play An Inspector Calls. Written in 1938, When We Are Married remains an audience favorite today and will be directed by Associate Artistic Director John Miller-Stephany (The Constant Wife, 1776, Jane Eyre).