NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ONTARIO -- That one year is so much like another in this pretty lakeside town, redolent of flowers and greasepaint, is part of its charm. But this year has this difference, that the Shaw Festival, well established as one of the great repertory theaters in the English-speaking world, is celebrating its 50th season.
The anniversary influenced artistic director Jackie Maxwell's planning of the bill of fare for the April-October season, now coming up on its midpoint. In celebration, she increased the number of plays by the festival's namesake to four out of 11 overall, but in such as way as to point as much forward as back.
On a mid-June trip a Post-Gazette theater group saw a varied four shows, all comedies, ranging from drama to musical to farce, illustrating the strength of the festival's performing ensemble of nearly 70. It just happened to include two of Shaw's own -- assuming you count "My Fair Lady," as why shouldn't you, when most of its dialogue and lyrics are lifted directly from his "Pygmalion"?
But the other two are also characteristic of the festival: a largely forgotten comedy by one of Shaw's less-remembered Irish contemporaries and an hour-long comic "lunchtime" gem that is more fun than even a champagne brunch could provide.
Lerner & Loewe (and Shaw), "My Fair Lady" (Festival Theatre)
This is the big one in terms of audience draw, but do not condescend to it on that account. Although the large festival theater was indeed packed, it was also evident that "My Fair Lady" strikes deeper chords when staged by a skilled acting company that would be just as comfortable doing "Pygmalion" itself.
Director Molly Smith, on leave from Washington's Arena Stage, refers to this in her program note about the pleasures of working with the festival company, "the pre-eminent experts on Shaw's language and ideas, on a musical about language and ideas." Still, there's no denying that Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics), although keeping so much Shaw, does indulge our sentimental hope (which Shaw would have none of) that Eliza and Higgins will end up together.
In other words, it isn't quite Shaw. But the flash of ideas about language and class that remain are given a vigorous, cut crystal airing by Benedict Campbell (Higgins), Patrick Galligan (Pickering) and Sharry Flett (Mrs. Higgins). And Deborah Hay (Eliza) and Neil Barclay (Doolittle), who carry much of Frederick Loewe's rich musical burden, never let their showmanship overcome their care for character and language.
If you go ...
General Information: 50th season, 10th under artistic director Jackie Maxwell. A colorful 64-page schedule and visitors' guide to shows, accommodations, restaurants and attractions is available from the Shaw Festival, Box 774, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada L0S 1J0; 1-800-511-SHAW (7429); www.shawfest.com.
Tickets: Prices vary according to theater, location in theater, day of week and play. The range is Canadian $32-$106 (U.S. $33.34-$110.45) with many shows discounted for students and seniors.
Accommodations: Through chamber of commerce (1-888-619-5981, niagaraonthelake.com). Similar services include the NOTL B&B Association (1-866-855-0123, niagarabedandbreakfasts.com); and BBSTAY NOTL and B&B Concierge (1-866-805-9188, bbstay.ca).
Festival Theatre (856 seats): "My Fair Lady" through Oct. 30; "Heartbreak House" through Oct. 7; "The Admirable Crichton" through Oct. 29.
Royal George Theatre (328 seats): "Candida" through Oct. 30; "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" through Oct. 23; "The President," lunchtime, through Oct. 9.
Court House Theatre (327 seats): "Drama at Inish - A Comedy" through Oct. 1; "On the Rocks" through Oct. 8; "Maria Severa" July 19-Sept. 23.
Studio Theatre (176 seats): "Topdog Underdog" July 19-Aug. 27; "When the Rain Stops Falling" Aug. 11-Sept. 17.
Other events and attractions: Backstage tours; pre-show chats; Tuesday Q&As Saturday Conversations; Sunday coffee concerts; backstage tours; Speed of Ideas Forum (Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks, Michael Billington (July 23-24); Autumn Experience (Sept. 21-23, Oct. 5-7); Four-Day Seminar (Aug. 11-14); many Shaw Workshops (various); student packages; theater and dining packages; theater and hotel packages; etc.
My own favorite revelation is Ms. Flett's stern but gracious realization of all the tartness Shaw gave her. At the Shaw Festival, "My Fair Lady" manages to be simultaneously a sumptuous musical and a very fine play with music.
Lennox Robinson, "Drama at Inish - A Comedy" (Court House Theatre)
One of the best reasons to go to the Shaw is to discover plays they have discovered for us. Robinson was a young man whom Yeats dragooned into running the Abbey Theatre, and he developed into a stalwart of the Irish literary revival, but "Drama at Inish" (1933) is his first play I can remember having seen.
Structurally, it's common enough, set in the living room of a small seaside hotel where the visitors and the locals interact. The occasion is the arrival in town of a "modern" acting company, creating the comic clash of worldly and provincial. Surprisingly, a nightly repertory of Ibsen, Strindberg, Turgenev and the like stirs festering dissatisfactions and sets the emotional balance of families and the town on edge.
All ends well, of course -- hence the reassurance of "comedy" following "drama" in the title. But Robinson touches on some serious issues. You can see the care with which he walks the fine line between parodic farce and something like Chekhovian sympathy in the two "star" actors, who are caricatures enough for the former but express enough artistic idealism for the latter.
What happens is that some members of the local audience begin to see their own lives in dramatic terms -- as artful constructs, you might say -- which suggests they are developing authorial agency, a sure challenge to the status quo. Turn over a long quiet stone and who knows what might wriggle out.
Speaking of acting companies, the Shaw itself offers the pleasures of a company exercised by repertory, and I particularly enjoyed seeing Mary Haney, who was playing ingenues just 29 years ago when I first headed north, who played Joan of Arc along the way, and who now plays the busybody spinster with comic flare and a good heart.
That's also the essence of this small but appealing play.
Shaw, "Candida" (Royal George Theatre)
This, Shaw's famous debate about marriage, is something finer. A supremely self-confident, progressive cleric, Morell, finds his perfect marriage to the beautiful, capable Candida challenged by a scruffy, ludicrously self-confident young poet, Marchbanks. Astonishingly, Candida is asked to choose between them -- spiritually, at least.
Marchbanks is just the sort of self-conscious Pre-Raphaelite that Gilbert & Sullivan made such fun of, but Shaw sees the eternal, solitary artist beneath his callow posing. Meanwhile, he sees that the successful Morell, such a sturdy mix of socialism and the Protestant pulpit, is completely dependent on his wife's mothering, not to mention the adoration of his secretary and Rev. Mill, his curate.
As the program essays (a collateral pleasure of the Shaw Festival) point out, "Candida" is Shaw's response to the challenge of Ibsen's "A Doll's House," and there are several ways to read it. The simplest is that it isn't women who need to be freed from the emotional dependence of marriage, but men. It also says something about Shaw's own relationships with women, including his mother and the actresses who enthralled him.
How you read it has a lot to do with Candida, and as played by the fetching but rather recessive Claire Jullien, she leaves the battlefield to the two men and to Shaw's ideas. Throw in her comic, conservative father, and those ideas have plenty of spokesmen.
In a stroke of color-blind casting, Morell is played by an African-Canadian, Nigel Shawn Williams, who manages to make his bluster manly, as it must be, and his collapse sympathetic. Wade Bogert-O'Brien's poet seems overly silly, but he develops the spine needed at the end of the play.
I found the debate about marriage very moving. It seems to suggest that women love us for our need of them, while we love them for accepting that. And that's just the start of Shaw's paradoxes.
Ferenc Molnar, adapted by Morwyn Brebner, "The President" (Royal George)
I reviewed this two years ago, when the Shaw staged it first, and I applaud its return. Exactly one hour long, it shows a captain of industry taking a young lout who's just been married by a rich young woman under his care, and given just 50 minutes before her parents arrive, remakes him. Not to spoil any suspense, he succeeds triumphantly, even allowing for all the time taken up by our laughter. Brilliant.
Senior theater critic Christopher Rawson is at 412-216-1944.
First published on July 10, 2011 at 12:00 am
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