THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW is D.H. Lawrence’s searing portrayal of a marriage in crisis. The play was written in 1913, when Lawrence was still a schoolteacher in Croydon but went unproduced until 1967.

Set against the background of a pit strike, THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW tells the story of Luther Gascoyne, a young miner, and his newly wed wife Minnie, a former governess. The tensions and misunderstandings they suffer as a result of their different backgrounds are exacerbated by the powerful influence of Luther’s mother and brought to open conflict when it is discovered that Luther, before his marriage, has made another woman pregnant.

“Proof that theater history is worth excavating,” wrote Bruce Weber in the New York Times, adding “Rarely do you see lives so persuasively scraped raw onstage.”1 Listed among the Times’ Top Ten productions of the year, such was the acclaim for THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW that the original six week run was extended to three months. The Mint’s production received two Drama Desk nominations, including Outstanding Revival and Outstanding Featured Actress for Mikel Sarah Lambert’s portrayal of Mrs. Gascoyne.

David Herbert Lawrence (Playwright 1885-1930) was born in 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. He is best known as the author of Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love and the notorious Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which was considered to be obscene and widely banned; remarkably, the novel was not legally available in England until 1960. Many of Lawrence’s works, including The Daughter-in-Law, are set in the Eastwood of his childhood, where he grew up the third son of a coal miner.

Lawrence’s most widely read novel, Sons and Lovers is an autobiographical account of his youth and was written at the same time as The Daughter-in-Law, which also plumbs the conflict between mother and lover.

D. H. Lawrence was a brilliant and often difficult man. Few modern writers have been as strikingly original or as controversial. Few have inspired such passionate admiration and such committed opposition.

Lawrence is the author of eight full-length plays, none of which he ever saw on stage in his lifetime. The Daughter-in-Law was available in print for the first time in 1965. In 1968, The Royal Court produced The Daughter-in-Law along with The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd and A Collier’s Friday Night, all under the direction of Peter Gill, and the process of establishing Lawrence’s reputation as a great playwright was begun, nearly forty years after his death. Over the last three and a half decades that reputation has grown, and appreciation for Lawrence’s gifts as a dramatist is now undeniable.

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CAST

  • Mrs. Gascoyne Mikel Sarah Lambert
  • Mrs. Purdy Jodie Lynne McClintock
  • Minnie Angela Reed / Rachel Fowler
  • Joe Peter Russo
  • Luther Gareth Saxe
  • Understudy Mrs. Gascoyne, Mrs. Purdy Celia Howard
  • Understudy Minnie Lanie MacEwan
  • Understudy Joe, Luther David Van Pelt

CREATIVES

  • Assistant Director Linnet Taylor
  • Set Design Bill Clarke
  • Lighting Design Jeff Nellis
  • Costume Design Holly Poe Durbin
  • Properties Designer Judi Guralnick
  • Dialects Amy Stoller
  • Casting Sharron Bower
  • Production Stage Manager Samone B. Weissman
  • Assistant Stage Manager Douglas Shearer
  • Graphic Design Hey Jude Design, Inc.
  • Press Representative David Gersten & Associates

DR. ELEANOR GREEN

Dr. Eleanor Green, President-elect of the D.H. Lawrence Society, North America speaks about Lawrence and takes questions from the audience.

DR. SHIRLEY GLASS

Dr. Shirley Glass, psychologist, leading specialist on relationships and the author of Not Just Friendsoffers marriage counseling to the characters from The Daughter-in-Law and speaks about her book and her work, as well as answering questions from the audience.

Program

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