Hobson’s Choice by Harold Brighouse, set in 1880s Salford, explores the social deity that was prevalent in society, exploring the phrase “Hobson’s Choice” meaning no choice at all. Brighouse explores this concept using Mr Hobson, the owner of a bootmaker’s shop, who has a predicament.

Henry Horatio Hobson has three daughters – Maggie, Vickey and Alice. He is a widower and feels he cannot cope with their “uppish” tendencies anymore. But it is the eldest daughter, Maggie, who is going to be the challenge – Maggie whom her father affectionately (?) likens to tough leather. At thirty years old with no suitor in sight, she is resigned to being a spinster. However, Maggie does have a sharp business head, and enlists the lowly, down at heel bootmaker from the basement to be her intended. Willie Mossop is the man of her choice, and she will not have it any other way.

The interesting play on words and the Pygmalion-style relationship that ensues had my heart in a turmoil as we witnessed Willie’s humbled nature and low status ebb away to reveal the man she wanted him to be. The wedding night was a charming insight into the turmoil in Willie’s mind, as his wife returned with one hand holding a candle, the other outstretched to entrap him like the spider to the fly. Willie Mossop had used all possible delaying tactics, from tidying up to pleading for his future brothers-in-law to stay a little longer. Finally, he relents, takes her hand, enters her web and exits a changed man!

This production had so many layers that were beautifully explored, from concept to performance, using staging, lighting and superb actors to tell the story of Hobson’s Choice. With seating positioned a hair’s breath from the actors, we are invited into Hobson’s shoe shop. We see a simple desk that supports a huge account book, a chair for the customer with a footstool, and at the back of the shop an array of boxes containing clogs and boots. Next to this is a large window – from here, natural light spills into the room and also gives us the opportunity to view the customers before and after they enter the shop.

Maggie, the older sister who predominately runs the shop, is strikingly assertive, sharp and bold, played by Julia Arundale who captures her acerbic nature so accurately that we, too, are nervous of being flayed by her sharp tongue! The two slightly giddy and fashionable sisters Vickey and Alice are portrayed beautifully by Becky Done and Katie Levett. Their true colours are revealed to us at the end of the play, when they are given the opportunity to care for their unfortunate father as he falls from grace due to ill health, but decline the offer as their lives do not allow them to care for him. Instead, they prefer to hold on to their finery and oncoming motherhood.

Henry Horatio Hobson himself, played superbly by Des Turner, was a shocking reminder of the pomposity that the male head of the household brought to hold onto the natural order. We appropriately sucked our cheeks in disgust as he disclosed the incompetence of his daughters and the need for order to be restored. The only resolution was to immediately find husbands who would relieve him of this burden. We positively gloated when, in his hour of need, it was only the older sister Maggie and the once humbled, lowlife shoemaker Willie who now stood by to support him… but only on terms that were agreeable to their future.

Willie Mossop, played by Pete Bryans, effortlessly transforms from a stumbling, meek bootmaker to a proud businessman who knows his own mind… if it is in accordance with his wife’s wishes. The sisters’ suitors Fred Beenstock (played by Sean Scotchford) and Albert Prosser (played by Jonathon Wallis) are blindly catapulted into Maggie’s plan, whilst feeling they are now in a fortuitous position. How wrong can they be! Each character was true to the accent and period.

We witnessed scene changes that were choreographed with such grace that they seemed to dance in between the actors. Watching Tubby (played by Keith MacDougall) prepare Hobson’s breakfast whilst the store behind him gently transformed from Mossop’s cellar back into Hobson’s (even the beautifully labelled shoe boxes were turned to reflect the appropriate setting) was a joy to behold. This cohesive partnership was also enhanced with the clever use of a higher window to suggest we were in Mossop’s cellar which, when closed, exposed the lower, larger window of Hobson’s. Perfect!

I loved the truth and simplicity that Jan Palmer Sayer’s direction brought to this production. The play celebrated strong performers, truthful direction and a set that cleverly enveloped this creative concept. I left Mossop and Hobson’s Bootmakers with so many questions and a sense of relief that, as a modern-day woman with choices that were mine to make, times are so different now.

Or are they?