THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE

by Harley Granville Barker

National Theatre, directed by Peter Gill, to 7 June

First performed a century ago, The ‘Voysey Inheritance’ harks back to an era when solicitors were hommes d’affaires, and legal work was just part of the service they offered clients.

The eponymous inheritance – revealed to Edward Voysey (Dominic West) by his father and partner at respectable Lincoln’s Inn firm Voysey & Son as the play begins – is the secret use of clients’ capital to speculate and accumulate, a fraud which started a generation earlier still. The clients have never suspected a thing, as Mr Voysey (Julian Glover) has been sufficiently successful to ensure they receive the income they expect from their capital, while maintaining his extensive family in a fine upper middle-class lifestyle.


Edward, a straight-laced, morally upright sort if ever there were, is knocked sideways by the revelation, and soon finds himself thrust into a position where he must decide whether to continue the fraud or face jail and bring down the entire family, to the alarm of his five siblings. And so the inheritance takes its hold once more as Edward’s innocence is slowly shattered.


In an era of corporate fraud, the themes are as punchy today as they clearly were 100 years ago. Indeed the rogue trader himself, Nick Leeson, has written about the parallels between his story and that of the Voyseys. Much like Leeson, Mr Voysey began his life of crime simply trying to rescue the desperate situation he found himself in. ‘Ethically correct in our upbringing, something misfires when we are confronted by the ultimate ethical dilemma,’ Leeson muses.


Harley Granville Barker was a major theatrical figure of his time and a contemporary of George Bernard Shaw, a link that is evident in the sharp one-liners that punctuate the family’s banter and the amusing bombast of Edward’s brother Booth (Andrew Woodall).


But while the themes and dialogue are engaging, as is the insight into Edwardian bourgeois society, they come at the expense of somewhat insubstantial characters, Mr Voysey himself excepted. Edward in particular is a bit of a bore and his constant recital of the quandary he finds himself in, plus a pointless and half-hearted sub-plot, extend the evening to an over-long three hours (including interval).


Nonetheless, this is an interesting and relevant revival that shines a light on man’s vulnerability and the consequences that can have.