When We Are Married

Triple marriage on the rocks

First performed at the St Martins Theatre, London in 1938 this timeless classic is revived with a stellar cast of some of our finest British comedy actors which includes Lynda Baron, Michelle Dotrice, Roy Hudd and Maureen Lipman. Twice Olivier nominated Christopher Luscombe directs.

What is When We Are Married about?

Set in Yorkshire during the Edwardian period of 1908, When We Are Married weaves a comic tale of how three upright and respectable couples join together to celebrate their 25th anniversary, only to find that the vicar who married them all on that day didn't have the legal authority to do so - meaning in the eyes of the law, and indeed God, none of them are actually married to each other. The couples, Joseph and Maria, Herbert and Clara, and Councillor Albert and Annie find themselves in a situation of public disgrace, having been living in sin all of these years. It must be kept a secret! And indeed it would have been if the cook, Mrs Northrop hadn't been earwigging at the door.

The revelation has another effect on the three couples too. Clara has treated her husband with contempt for years, making him look a fool at any opportunity. Where Annie has been treated just as badly by her own husband, with his meanness and pedantic nit picking. And Albert, it transpires, has been making all sorts of promises to a bit of fluff he met in Blackpool. His wife wants nothing to do with him anymore. Now they find that their marriages are a sham, the truth can be told, as they are, in no certain terms. Has the past 25 years been for nothing, or will these three couples fight for the marriages and try to regain their respectability?

Did you know?

When We Are Married was the first play ever to be televised live, when in 1938 the BBC relayed the entire play.