The Voysey Inheritance: A Play

by David Mamet, Harley Granville-Barker

One hundred years after the first publication of The Voysey Inheritance, David Mamet resurrects Harley Granville-Barker’s classic investigation into the capitalist soul in this brilliant adaptation.
For generations, the Voysey family business has been secretly skimming money from its clients’ accounts. When Edward, designated to take over the firm from his aging father, discovers the embezzlement that has been keeping his relatives in a life of luxury, he must weigh the trappings of wealth and the imperative to preserve his family’s good name against the better principles of his conscience. But moral righteousness turns to self-protection when he comes to understand fully the consequences of his “inheritance.”

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Classics, Fiction, 20th Century

118 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1905

About the author

David Alan Mamet is an American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and film director. His works are known for their clever, terse, sometimes vulgar dialogue and arcane stylized phrasing, as well as for his exploration of masculinity.

As a playwright, he received Tony nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). As a screenwriter, he received Oscar nominations for The Verdict (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997).

Mamet's recent books include The Old Religion (1997), a novel about the lynching of Leo Frank; Five Cities of Refuge: Weekly Reflections on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (2004), a Torah commentary, with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner; The Wicked Son (2006), a study of Jewish self-hatred and antisemitism; and Bambi vs. Godzilla, an acerbic commentary on the movie business.

Reviews

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 MAR 2017 - what a great listen-to this was. I was grateful to have the lunchroom all to myself so I could just enjoy this story!

Harley Granville Barker - The Voysey Inheritance - Saturday Drama - BBC Radio 4 - listen here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018kcj6

Harley Granville Barker's classic 1905 play, The Voysey Inheritance.

Edward discovers that in inheriting his father's impressive family business, he is inheriting a Ponzi scheme. For years his father has been making free with clients' capital and speculating recklessly, as his own father did before him. Edward must decide whether to continue the business and try to put matters right - a seemingly impossible task - or to expose the crime and bring his family to certain ruin.

With Samuel Barnett as Edward and Clive Merrison as Mr. Voysey.

Edward........................... Samuel Barnett
Mr Voysey................ .... . Clive Merrison
Mr George Booth........... Gawn Grainger
Trenchard Voysey.......... Richard Dillane
Major Booth Vosey............ Alan Cox
Denis Tregoning................ Joseph Arkley
Mrs Voysey...................... Phyllida Law
Honor Voysey.................. Amanda Lawrence
Peacey............................. Paul Moriarty

The Voysey Inheritance was adapted for radio and directed by Lu Kemp.
(description from BBC Radio 4)

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 - Saturday drama:
Harley Granville Barker's classic 1905 play, The Voysey Inheritance.

Edward discovers that in inheriting his father's impressive family business, he is inheriting a Ponzi scheme. For years his father has been making free with clients' capital and speculating recklessly, as his own father did before him. Edward must decide whether to continue the business and try to put matters right - a seemingly impossible task - or to expose the crime and bring his family to certain ruin.

With Samuel Barnett as Edward and Clive Merrison as Mr. Voysey.

Edward........................... Samuel Barnett
Mr Voysey................ .... . Clive Merrison
Mr George Booth........... Gawn Grainger
Trenchard Voysey.......... Richard Dillane
Major Booth Vosey............ Alan Cox
Denis Tregoning................ Joseph Arkley
Mrs Voysey...................... Phyllida Law
Honor Voysey.................. Amanda Lawrence
Peacey............................. Paul Moriarty

The Voysey Inheritance was adapted for radio and directed by Lu Kemp.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018kcj6

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very strange "adaptation". Mamet very slightly reworks Harley Granville-Barker's excellent play into a pretty good play. It is somewhat streamlined and less antiquated but suffers from Mamet's knife. The primary loss is in the depth of the female characters. Mamet is not interested in them and minimizes their presence. He pares down the story to focus the drama but loses texture and specificity of place. Moving all of the action to the library of the Voysey Estate also negates the very specific distance that Granville-Barker places between the office and the home. Overall, a lesser version and a needless adaptation.

[Shhhhh Ahhhhh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm never sure how to rate plays. I mean, they all sort of leave me with a hanging feeling. I've never read or watched one which didn't (including my favorites, which had very strong points and definitive endings, Pygmalion and A Doll's House). I gave this 4 stars because I have no real complaints about it but that hanging feeling is inconsistent with a 5 star rating for me.

In my gut, this reads as a 'the road not taken' story, and also a basic telling of the problem that all sons have with their fathers, that they hate things about them that they will eventually become.

Do recommend for a brief diversion. It will absolutely get you wrapped up in it for a bit.

[jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by Granville-Barker over one hundred years ago, then tweaked and revived by Mamet a few years ago, this play concerns the discovery, at the end of his life, that patriarch Voysey has been pilfering from his clients for years and using the money to finance his own family's lavish lifestyle. It is only when young son Edward joins the firm and discovers his father's dishonesty that the family members must decide how important integrity and honor is to each of them. 3.5 stars

[E7boehm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good play. I like that Mamet adapts older plays he does a fine job with this one. It is a play that asks the question about moral absolutes and the consquences of them. It is also a play about actions in secret and the effect of those secrets being known. Read the play in about 1 1/2 hour very quick but good.

[Tom O'Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent enough play, musing about the corrupting power of greed, the limits of family loyalty, the pressures of society, expectation, prejudice and ignorance. All valid topics but it never really ignites. I can't compare this Mamet adaptation, having not seen or read the original, but this feels minor.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent 100 year old play that seems like it could have been written about Bernie Madhoff or the financial crisis of 2008.

[Nick Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before he was a writer, Harley Granville-Barker had been an actor, appearing in a number of George Bernard Shaw plays. The Voysey Inheritance feels like an early Shaw play, similar to things like Widowers’ Houses. It deals with a Social Question or injustice…the chicanery of solicitors and the misuse of their clients’ money. Like a Shaw play it can be broken down into duos, trios, quartets, ‘chorales’, etc, as the different characters come together in different arrangements. What it lacks is Shaw’s humour and wit. Edward Voysey’s inheritance is knowing that his father has misused his clients’ money: he had invested money and paid the clients their interest, but creamed off a profit. The system works smoothly, unless a client wants to withdraw their capital and then the skulduggery will be exposed. I’ve seen the play regarded as a critique of the capitalist financial system and I’ve even heard it called Marxist, but this seems inaccurate: finally, the corruption comes from one character misusing the system…although, arguably, the system allows the misuse. The play’s central dramatic question is what is Edward going to do about it? His plan is that he will repay the clients’ money by slowly working it off…but this will mean largely impoverishing the family. A large part of the play shows the different family members’ response to the plan. The irony is that disaster looms when a client wants to withdraw his money at short notice because while he had great faith in Edward’s father, he has little in Edward. I imagine a good production could be a dynamic affair, Edward responding to the pressures of his position, a character finding new resources within himself as he fights a losing battle, but a bad production would be an earnest affair with lots of actors standing around making heavy speeches.

[Bettie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Saturday Drama - Edward discovers the family business he is inheriting has been defrauding its clients.

BBC blurberoonies - Edward discovers that in inheriting his father's impressive family business, he is inheriting a Ponzi scheme. For years his father has been making free with clients' capital and speculating recklessly, as his own father did before him. Edward must decide whether to continue the business and try to put matters right - a seemingly impossible task - or to expose the crime and bring his family to certain ruin.

Edward........................... Samuel Barnett
Mr Voysey................ .... . Clive Merrison
Mr George Booth........... Gawn Grainger
Trenchard Voysey.......... Richard Dillane
Major Booth Vosey............ Alan Cox
Denis Tregoning................ Joseph Arkley
Mrs Voysey...................... Phyllida Law
Honor Voysey.................. Amanda Lawrence
Peacey............................. Paul Moriarty

The Voysey Inheritance was adapted for radio and directed by Lu Kemp.

[Carmen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this for English. I didn't really like it.

Alice is annoying. When she get's mad at Edward for stopping his proposals was like she was being a "pick me girl".

It is a good story about capitalism.

I like how they use Hugh's art career as a way to show how capitalism kills artists.

[Alyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enjoyable play. I am attending a callback from the role of Ethel this coming weekend. It is a story about family, lies, and money. All very compelling subjects.

[Aaron Thomas]

Holy shit this is good.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
Edward discovers the family business he is inheriting has been defrauding its clients.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely topical - but so, so dated. Uneven and let down by lack of real dramatic tension. Some interesting duologues

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

ok, not that interesting

[Michael P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This play has grown greatly in my estimation.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonably good tragicomedy.

[Giorgi Komakhidze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good.
Bonkers.