First staged in 1912 at the Court Theatre, to considerable acclaim, this play is set in the North Yorkshire home of an oppressive patriarch. It portrays his obsession with his glass manufacturing business and his tyranny over the wrecked lives of his family.

First staged in 1912 and described as "the most powerful play produced in England in this decade," Githa Sowerby's Edwardian classic on family and labour enjoyed huge success in London and New York Set in the North Yorkshire home of the oppressive patriarch John Rutherford, Rutherford and Son's portrayal of the father's obsession with glass manufacturing business and his tyranny over the wrecked lives of his family is on a par with the dramas of Ibsen, Gorky and Granville Barker.