Mechelle Moe + Director

Cast

Matt Bowdren * Martin

Francis Guinan * Rutherford

Rochelle Therrien * Mary

Jeannie Affelder Ann, Mrs. Henderson

August Forman Richard

Christina Gorman Janet

Michael Holding John

Production Team

Emma Schoenfelner Production Assistant

Eva Breneman ^ Associate Director, Dialect Coach

Andrew Hansen ^ Sound Designer

Maren Robinson + Co-Dramaturg
Megan E. Pirtle Wig and Hair Designer
Dina Spoerl Lobby Display Designer
Michelle Lilly Scenic Designer
Alexia Rutherford Costume Designer
Brandon Wardell # Lighting Designer
Vivian Knouse Properties Design
Rachel Flesher Intimacy Coordinator
Fatima Sowe Assistant Director
Jeri Frederickson * Stage Manager (10/7-12/2 and 12/24-1/12)
Luci Kersting * Stage Manager (12/3-12/23)
Lucas Garcia Co-Dramaturg

Understudies

Simon Hedger Rutherford

Cecilia Iole Mary

Jacob Mundell John, Richard

Sara Pavlak McGuire Janet

Jean Waller Ann, Mrs. Henderson

Reviews

Chicago Sun-Times

November 14, 2019

“Genuinely interesting. The characters are fully dimensional. The story is compelling … it definitely brings to mind the likes of Henrik Ibsen, whose works this play has been compared to since its initial run. … What distinguishes Rutherford and Son and makes it a worthy revelation is how it portrays the women.“

—Steven Oxman

Chicago Tribune

November 19, 2019

“An exceptionally skillful and provocative exploration of the patriarchal industrialist male … As you’d expect from so smart and talented a director, the show is carefully wrought.”

—Chris Jones

Newcity

November 25, 2019

TimeLine has done the theatergoing public a major service by dusting off this century-old play … Rutherford and Son deserves to be remembered, as does its pioneering writer …. Director Mechelle Moe, supported by a superb design and dramaturgical team, extracts every last drop of both dramatic tension and thematic insight from Sowerby’s taut, still-relevant play. … fills the TimeLine stage with meaty characters and gut-level conflict. … Francis Guinan, here making his TimeLine debut, is magnificent.

—Hugh Iglarsh

Chicago Reader

November 20, 2019

“Githa Sowerby’s long-neglected drama has a strong cast at TimeLine … For a mostly forgotten 1912 play, written by Githa Sowerby (but presented under a male-sounding pen name at the time), this family drama is surprisingly similar to HBO’s Succession.“

—Marissa Oberlander

Stage and Cinema

November 15, 2019

RECOMMENDED. “You can’t keep a good play down. … Though ahead of its time with its unsparing portrayal of women defying circumstances and indifference, Rutherford and Son is universal in its protest against untapped talent and wasted worth. … Unlike the R.M.S. Titanic, which foundered in the same year, Rutherford and Son remains unsinkable.“

—Lawrence Bommer

Broadway World

November 19, 2019

“It’s rare that modern theatergoers can catch the Chicago premiere of a ground-breaking play written more than a century ago, but TimeLine Theatre is offering this chance with its searing production of Githa Sowerby’s Rutherford and Son. … Director Mechelle Moe draws carefully paced, powerful performances from this talented cast … Beyond the historical significance, this progressive play remains relevant for today’s audiences with its fresh dialogue, complex characters, and themes of gender inequality and family dysfunction. It took 107 years to make it to Chicago, but it was worth the wait.“

—Emily McClanathan

Windy City Times

November 16, 2019

“Under TimeLine director Mechelle Moe, though, the minor-scale tone of this “lost” play never descends into melodramatic parody, but instead turns its very darkness to advantage, forging transcendent moments of defiance pointing the way to hope.“

—Mary Shen Barnidge

Picture This Post

November 14, 2019

RECOMMENDED. “The senior Rutherford [is] played with magnificent grump by Francis Guinan … Rutherford and Son shines a richly-deserved light on a playwright who spoke the truth to her audience – and to ours as well.“

—Susan Lieberman

Chicago Theatre Review

November 19, 2019

RECOMMENDED. “A rediscovered dramatic gem … In Mechelle Moe’s intriguing, well-guided production, audiences will discover a little-known play, written at a time when revolution was in the air. It will remind theatergoers of the plays of Chekov, Ibsen and Shaw but, because this play is told from a woman’s point of view, chauvinism is conquered and feminism makes a stand.”

—Colin Douglas

Chicagoland Theater Reviews

November 15, 2019

★★★★ “The brilliance of the revival now playing at the TimeLine Theatre validates Sowerby’s drama as one of the major works of the 20th century. … Mechelle Moe has directed the production beautifully, orchestrating her skilled cast so seamlessly that the drama looks inevitable in its conflicts. I didn’t see or hear a single false emotional note, no matter how high passions ran. It is difficult to imagine the play looking or sounding any other way, the ultimate compliment to any production. There is always something special about watching a resurrected play that turns out to be some kind of masterpiece.“

—Dan Zeff

Features

Chicago Tribune

November 1, 2019

Chicago Tribune‘s Myrna Petlicki interviewed Rutherford and Son actor Jeannie Affelder about playing two characters, her all-time favorite rehearsal moment (shout out to past production To Master The Art!) and her life outside the theater.

Read the full feature

Chicago Reader

November 6, 2019

Chicago Reader‘s Kerry Reid explores the roots of an oft-forgotten play in this feature on Rutherford and Son, and how this “tale of a grasping patriarchal capitalist still has resonance today.”

Read the full feature

Chicago Tribune

November 21, 2019

Rutherford and Son actor Francis Guinan sat down with the Chicago Tribune to chat about Fran’s work as the tyrannical Rutherford patriarch, his time with Steppenwolf, and his favorite haunts in Chicago and beyond.

Read the full feature

Theatre in Chicago

December 30, 2019

Read this Mary Shen Barnidge feature for Theatre in Chicago: “The Great Unrest Continues: 1912 Play Rutherford and Son Reflects a Time Not Unlike Our Own.”

Read the full feature