From Arts Archive: When Barbara Tressidor leaves her wealthy husband and elopes to Italy with the son of a coal miner she has known for only three weeks, she sparks a scandal which strikes at the whole of polite. British society and has a huge impact on her titled family. In this comedy, each of the affected parties makes their way to the isolated Italian villa to do battle in the fight for Barbara. Their displays of jealousy, incomprehension, common sense and emotion are charged with the humour and pathos of real life. Whether Barbara will be persuaded to act with her head or her heart is uncertain until the very end.
Cast List:
Jason Hughes - Jimmy Wesson
Pandora Colin - Francesca
Rebecca Hall - Barbara Tressidor
Benjamin Joiner - Burcher
Ann Penfold - Lady Charlcote
Col Farrell - Sir William Charlcote
William Chubb - Dr. Frederick Tressidor
Director: Thea Sharrock
Writer: DH Lawrence
Jimmy Wesson runs away with Barbara, but finds himself up against her husband and parents as they track her down and beg her to come home.
BBC Somerset:
"...Jason Hughes is excellent as the moody Jimmy and there is strong support from the versatile Ann Penfold as the wounded mother - Lady Charlcote and Col Farrell as a wonderfully anachronistic Sir William Charlcote...."
The Financial Times:
"...Jason Hughes playing Jimmy has complete integrity even in the character's moments of uncertainty, while William Chubb, as Barbara's husband, gives the most perfect performance of all...."
The Guardian:
"...Lawrence paints Jimmy as a staunch, loving, dependable workhorse who lights the fires and cooks all the meals...Jason Hughes has a much easier task as the strong, silent hero which is Lawrence's flattering self-portrait...."
Bristol Evening Post:
"Jason Hughes gives a fine performance as the bewildered Lawrence character, Jimmy."
Western Daily Press:
"There are two superb central performances from Jason Hughes and Rebecca Hall, full of depth and passion...."
The Times:
"...Jason Hughes catches all the incisiveness and some of the quiet intensity Lawrence found in himself. But when Hall's Barbara and Hughes's Jimmy were feverishly analysing each other's faults, flaws and respective capacities for love, I felt two things. First, how impressively in advance of most British drama of its era the play was. Secondly, how enervating it must have been to live in a household where everyday conversation consisted of 'you want to swallow me and take my will away,' 'you're afraid to let yourself belong to me", and "I'm frightened", "then you are frightened of yourself'...."
The Daily Telegraph (UK):
"...The Lawrence character, in contrast, a miner's son called Jimmy Wesson, is strong, dignified and heroically patient as he deals with his middle-class mistress's wobblies and a succession of threatening visits from Barbara's mother, father and cuckolded husband. Just a few months into his relationship with (Barbara), the writer appears to have been wondering what the hell he had got himself into...."
The Daily Express:
"...Though no long lost masterpiece, it's enlivened by the vivacious Rebecca who squabbles with her lover boy (Jason Hughes) while her appalled family try to get her to give him the push..."
The Independent:
"...In the first scene of Thea Sharrock's excellent revival of this forgotten gem, Jimmy (Jason Hughes) is making breakfast in his pyjamas, happy and scruffy in a rough-and-ready villa with a view of distant mountains. Barbara (Rebecca Hall), too, is playfully skittish in her night gown, and both are affectionate and teasing. It's a relaxed Boho life, interrupted only by the milkmaid or il postino. But Jimmy is a collier's son while Barbara is upper-crust, and her parents and husband Frederick turn up, determined to retrieve her from this "shameful" affair. She stands her ground, frankly condemning her marriage, but her anxieties start to show and her jokes about Jimmy's lowliness become cruel... The physical intimacy of Hughes and Hall is terrifically natural, amusing and poignant, too - whether she idly hugs him while he's trying to boil eggs or he suddenly clasps her in the middle of a quarrel. This piece is timeless in its sensitivity to the emotional mess caused by what we so neatly dub "love triangles"."
Most of the cast, including Jason, were also appearing in Design for Living, which ran during the same period. They were William Chubb, Ann Penfold, Pandora Colin, Benjamin Joiner, and Col Farrell. There were two dates when both productions were performed on the same day: July 5 and August 2, 2003. (The Fight for Barbara - 11am and Design for Living - 8pm).
Arts Archive - Fight for Barbara
Online book
Rebecca Hall fansite
Theatricalia website
Performance Dates and Merchandising:
The Fight for Barbara was performed at The Theatre Royal in Bath from June 30 - August 6, 2003, as part of the Peter Hall season, and was among several productions the company was presenting during the 2003 summer season, including Design for Living.
The play is available for sale, and online
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