Rutherford and Son

Rutherford and Son is a play by Githa Sowerby (1876–1970), written in 1912. It premiered in London in the same year with four matinee performances at the Royal Court followed by a run of 133 performances at the Vaudeville Theatre. The production was directed by Norman McKinnel who also took the role of Rutherford. The same production opened at the Little Theater, New York on Christmas Eve, 1912 and ran for 63 performances. The Times theatre critic, Arthur Bingham Walkley, called it "a play not easily forgotten, and full of promise for the future as well as of merit in itself", while the Saturday Review thought it showed "what can be done in the modern theatre by keeping strictly to the point." Journalist Keble Howard, after an interview with Sowerby in 1912, wrote that, "Rutherford and Son is a marvellous achievement...".

Rutherford, "a bull-headed capitalist who crushes his own children beneath the wheels of industry" has built a glassmaking business which he has always intended to pass onto his son, John. He sent John to Harrow School to have him educated as a gentleman, but to his disgust John turned his back on the business and went to London, where he married a working class girl, Mary. When John and Mary had a child, Tony, they could not afford to feed and look after the baby properly, and they have come back to live in Rutherford's house. Rutherford dominates the household, consisting of Ann, his sister, and his children John, Richard and Janet; he barely acknowledges Mary's existence.

John, trained in chemistry, has developed a metal which he believes can save the business a great deal of money; but rather than giving it to his father to benefit the business, he regards it as his to sell to make his fortune. He tries to sell it to his father, who turns him down as he believes that John owes him it both in return for bringing him up and to benefit the business which will ultimately come to John. To support his estimation of the value of his invention, John says that he has shared it with his father's right-hand man Martin, whose opinion of it was favourable.

Martin is seen sharing a passionate kiss with Rutherford's daughter Janet, and they arrange a further meeting in secret.

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