There are lots of reasons why people don’t go to church. The New Testament itself seems to admit the religious path is not for the majority: “…narrow is the way, which leadeth unto [eternal] life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14). And even some of those who do attend church services have reasons other than religious devotion for doing so. For instance, a local school run by the Church will have active membership as a criterion for entry to the said school: this refers to parents or legal guardians, so carting children off to Sunday School is in itself insufficient.
For Robert Evans (Owen Teale), in the 1840s, the parish church was to be the means by which a husband would be found for his daughter Mary Ann (Elizabeth Dulau). Nothing unusual in that, given the time period. Mary Ann, however, had always been a bookworm, and in the course of her reading of many books over the years, she had come to reject organised Western Christian religion. This did not mean she rejected all of the teachings of Jesus – indeed, His instruction to avoid hypocrisy is the very reason why she no longer wants to attend church, because if rendering lip service to a religion she does not adhere to isn’t hypocritical, what is?
Perhaps predictably, none of this goes down well with her father, and his peers and acquaintances find Mary Ann’s views abhorrent in what the play rather unsubtly asserts as unabashed misogyny. Earlier in the play, a possible suitor, Horace Garfield (Jonnie Broadbent), finding Mary Ann isn’t the bashful, submissive ‘yes, sir’ woman he assumed she would be, flies into a rage, and it quickly becomes clear to everyone present, especially to Robert, who turfs Garfield out of his house, that he isn’t marriage material after all.
The two hour and forty-minute running time goes by sufficiently well in what becomes a somewhat meandering story that could do with some trimming. At one point, the audience watches people packing for an extended holiday, which, as I’m sure you can imagine, is about as riveting as watching paint dry. There are some cringey moments – the emotional outburst from the otherwise stoic and pragmatic Mary Ann that came at the end of the first act was more or less repeated in the closing moments of the second. Neither added anything to proceedings. Later, the salient points of Robert’s will being revealed to Mary Ann could have been delivered in less than half the time it took to exchange pleasantries with executor Hugo Baring (James Staddon), let alone get to the point. I concede others may wish to counter that there is a dramatic build-up of sorts.
Either way, it is just as well, then, that Mary Ann is written as a rounded and sympathetic character – this is not an all-out rebellious youngster who indiscriminately lashes out at anyone and everyone who doesn’t understand her struggle. A stage revolve is used well, helping to ensure continuous action as one scene flows into another. The focus on the life of Mary Ann Evans before she even adopted her pen name, George Eliot, is a curious one. But it was interesting to discover, however much dramatic licence may or may not have been deployed, what went on before Eliot’s literary success. An engaging and thoughtful show – and you need not have read a word of George Eliot’s novels to get your head around it.
Review by Chris Omaweng
1841. Mary Ann Evans is of marriageable age – just. Her father, Robert, has recently moved with her to Bird Grove House, with the sole purpose of finding her a suitable husband through the local church. But Mary Ann’s remarkable intellect and growing self-confidence are forming progressive new ideas in her mind; ideas that challenge her father’s most strongly held beliefs.
Fuelled by every new book she reads and a burgeoning friendship with local radicals, Mary Ann finds it increasingly difficult to accept the rules of the world around her – bringing her into direct and bitter conflict with the father she adores. But perhaps that is the only way forward: to break every societal convention expected of her, find her voice, and become the writer she has always dreamt of being. After all, who can suppress the astounding gifts of future literary titan, George Eliot?
CAST
Horace Garfield – Jonnie Broadbent
Isaac Evans – Jolyon Coy
Mary Ann Evans – Elizabeth Dulau
Dorothea – Katie Eldred
Charles Bray – Tom Espiner
Cara Bray – Rebecca Scroggs
Monsieur Lafontaine / Hugo Baring – James Staddon
Robert Evans – Owen Teale
Maria – Sarah Woodward
ARTISTIC TEAM
Writer – Alexi Kaye Campbell
Director – Anna Ledwich
Designer – Sarah Beaton
Production Manager – Tom Nickson
Lighting Designer – Matt Haskins
Sound Designer and Composer – Harry Blake
Co-Composer – Clara Pople
Costume Supervisor – Chantal Short
Voice/Dialect – Michaela Kennen
Casting Director – Juliet Horsley CDG
BIRD GROVE
Hampstead Theatre
13 February to 21 March 2026
