Reviewed by Frank McKone
May 27
Creatives Team:
Director – Rachel Hogan
Lighting Design – Neville Pye; Sound Design – Angus Eckstein
Set Design – Rachel Hogan
Costumes – Rachel Hogan, Sandy Cassidy and Cast
Characters in Order of Appearance:
Suffragettes – Philippa Russell-Brown, Kathryn Holopainen
Clara Eynsford-Hill – Eilis French; Mrs Eynsford-Hill – Crystal Mahon
A Lady of the Night – Kah-mun Wong
Freddy Eynsford-Hill – Lucas Edmunds
Eliza Doolittle – Meaghan Stewart; ‘Kershaw’ Pickering – Thomas Cullen
Henry Higgins – Adam Salter; Mrs Pearce – Joan White
Alfred Doolittle – Peter Fock; Mrs Higgins – Elaine Noon;
Maid – Kathryn Holopainen
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Tempo Theatre sought out Rachel Hogan to direct, asking for a ‘light’ choice.
Considering what Bernard Shaw himself wrote in 1941, you may wonder about Tempo’s agreeing to do Pygmalion: I wish to boast that Pygmalion
has been an extremely successful play, both on stage and screen, all
over Europe and North America as well as at home. It is so intensely
and deliberately didactic, and its subject is esteemed so dry, that I
delight in throwing it at the heads of the wiseacres who repeat the
parrot cry that art should never be didactic. It goes to prove my
contention that great art can never be anything else.
[ Preface to Pygmalion, Penguin ]
You may have wondered, too, why Shaw gave it such an awful name, Pygmalion, instead of the oh-so attractive title My Fair Lady.
That Lerner and Loewe musical was staged in 1956, six years after Shaw
died; and was made into the famous movie in 1964. I have always felt
that Shaw would have felt ambivalent about the ending of My Fair Lady,
where Rex Harrison’s Professor Higgins is almost avuncular and Julie
Andrews’ Eliza reappears as if still wanting him after all, as he sits
sadly hearing her recorded voice.
(I have written on this issue previously in my review of the Opera Australia production at https://frankmckone2.blogspot.com/search?q=My+Fair+Lady)
The famous British director Trevor Nunn had no doubts in his 2001 article in The Guardian, Poor Professor Higgins! In George Bernard Shaw's original play, Eliza and Henry don't even get it together. No wonder My Fair Lady is miles better than Pygmalion….But
the real achievement of Lerner's adaptation is his insight that the
story requires not one, not two, but three personal journeys. Doolittle
is changed into a respectable member of the reviled middle classes;
Eliza is changed into an new woman once her "guttersnipe" habits are
expunged; but the third metamorphosis is of Professor Higgins, who is
transformed finally and movingly from a man unable to express his
feelings into a more complete emotional human being. Pygmalion is a collection of very brilliant theatrical and comic ideas, but My Fair Lady quite simply is a masterpiece.
[ https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/mar/14/artsfeatures.georgebernardshaw ]
Along
with Rachel Hogan, and her excellent cast, including at least two drama
teachers, I don’t agree with Trevor Nunn. Rachel's production is
lightly done, with a finesse that is entirely true to the original Shaw
play, which he called – ironically – a ‘romantic’ comedy.
If you want schmaltzy romance, choose My Fair Lady. If you want the truth, go see Tempo’s Pygmalion,
laugh at Adam Salter’s Henry Higgins (because you can’t laugh with
him), and enjoy Meaghan Stewart’s irrepressible Eliza – and especially
feel with her that tremendous sense of relief that in her determination
to be her own person she has found a way to escape her arrogant, even
violent, Pygmalion: the sculptor who stupidly falls in ‘love’ (i.e.
lust) with his own creation. Pig-malion, I would call Professor Henry Higgins.
“Tempo
Theatre Inc. is a non-profit community theatre organisation proudly
serving the Canberra region. We produce and promote live theatre, foster
social interaction between people interested in theatre, and promote
theatre skills development.”
[ https://tempotheatre.org.au/main/welcome.html ]
Tempo Theatre has served us very well indeed.
Now to the production itself.
As
a Londoner myself, whose grandfather was a true Cockney – born within
the sound of Bow Bells (and whose grandmother was Welsh, like Eliza’s
according to the phonetics professor) – I was impressed especially with
the accuracy of the accents, though I did find the harshness of Peter
Fock’s ‘undeserving poor’ voice in his first scene a little hard to
follow. He, and even Meaghan Stewart when in the gutter in the opening
scene, could slow the pace to bring out more of the ‘knowing’ quality of
the language – which Meaghan captured so beautifully in the ‘not bloody
likely’ scene. Cockney expression, often what I knew as a child as
‘chi-acking’, makes fun of the person being spoken to, while also being
an in-joke that the listener – if a true denizen of Tottenham Court Road
– appreciates. (How Shaw, an Irishman, came to understand Cockney so
well always amazed me.)
The details of the characterisations was
the next element that made this production impressive. The trick in
Bernard Shaw’s writing is to play just enough ‘over-the-top’ in an
expressionist style to bring out the subtlety of the comedy (this is
Shaw being didactic) at the same time as formulating naturalistic
characters which draw upon the audience’s empathetic feelings. I call
this acting both outwards and inwards at the same time. It makes Shaw’s
dialogue special. Shakespeare did it so well using verse. Shaw can be
harder to fathom: many directors think his dialogue is boring!
Everyone
in Hogan’s cast cottoned on wonderfully to Shaw’s intention, placing
their character in their social class with just the right personality.
I
was pleased especially to see Elaine Noon’s Mrs Higgins take control of
her scenes with the two childish ‘boys’ Henry and Kershaw Pickering;
and a similar strength in Joan White’s Mrs Pearce – yet with the
recognition of her place as a servant dependent for her income on her
employer, the often irascible and childish Professor. The change in
Alfred Doolittle when he comes into the money – but with middle class
morality obligations – is easily over-played too far. Stanley Holloway
could get away with this in the romantic My Fair Lady; but Peter Fock got it right as it should be for Pygmalion.
The Eynsford-Hill family also all kept that balance. We could see them
as a real family of individuals without the satire of their class
taking over their scenes.
Playing Colonel Pickering as a younger
character than is usually done, worked very well. Thomas Cullen had the
class behind him that placed him in Henry Higgins’ environment, while
his less imposing figure yet with worldly experience made him able to
play more equally with Eliza – allowing the scene in which she explains
how important it was for her when he had called her ‘Miss Doolittle’ to
have a greater impact for us, in our times where the issues of how men
treat women, at all ages and levels of society even within our
democratic Parliament, have become exposed so much more openly than in
1914. Presenting Philippa Russel-Brown and Kathryn Holopainen as
suffragettes with Votes for Women signs at Covent Garden made its
political point clear – very suitable for Bernard Shaw’s didacticism.
Finally
the details of the development in the characters of Eliza Doolittle and
Professor Higgins and their fraught relationship were played out by
Meaghan Stewart and Adam Salter with the exact balance needed between
the acting outward and acting inward that makes this production a
thoroughly satisfying success.
And I must conclude by saying that
the staging and set design was thoughtfully done, keeping in mind
Shaw’s stage instructions yet working very well in the limited space
available on the Belconnen Community Centre’s stage. And the thunder
and lightning which begins the play were appropriately realistic.
Only
being able to offer a one-week run is perhaps inevitable for an amateur
company, but I must say the standard of this production makes me wish
it could go on longer.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
