The Stage

The Voysey Inheritance

Published Thursday 27 April 2006 at 13:25 by Aleks Sierz

Is dishonesty the root of all evil? Granville Barker’s 1906 play is a masterly mix of family drama and state-of-the-nation commentary.

Old Mr Voysey has followed in his father’s footsteps and run an upper-class legal business for 30 years. But his inheritance is tainted - his father defrauded his clients, and Voysey has continued this practice in order to protect the family name.

Now, his son Edward has to choose whether to carry on the criminal fraud or take a more honest course. Granville Barker explores this moral question by involving the whole Voysey family - including deaf Mrs Voysey, Edward’s military brother Booth and his artistic sibling Hugh - and their friends. Helping Edward solve his dilemma is Alice, the woman he has proposed to.

What’s appealing about the play is not only the way that Granville Barker dramatises the age-old conflict between right and wrong but also the continuing relevance of his vision of money, class and personal worth. In this society, the appearance of wealth is as important as its honest possession.

On Alison Chitty’s sumptuous Edwardian set, Peter Gill’s bustling revival has an Upstairs-Downstairs feel, constantly reminding us of the gap between the comfortable rich and the servile poor. His large cast deliver solid if rather unexciting performances, with Dominic West as the sincerely troubled Edward, Julian Glover as old Voysey, Andrew Woodall as the booming Booth and Nancy Carroll as the loyal Alice. Still, this play of ideas speaks directly to us today.