Independent Means By Stanley Houghton

Set in the fictional town of Salchester somewhere between Salford and Manchester, 'Independent Means' chronicles the fortunes of an upper class conservative family in the Edwardian age.

First performed in 1909 the play’s chief protagonist is Sydney Forsyth, a socialist who has recently and rashly married Edgar Forsyth, the staunchly conservative unemployable son of John Forsyth.

When John Forsyth is bankrupted after speculating the family’s capital they all face disaster but Sidney takes a secretarial job prompting her husband to announce that "no decent husband could live off his wife's earnings".

But Houghton suggests that female independence can be combined with marital harmony.