It’s one of mankind’s oldest lessons—be careful what you wish for.
George Bernard Shaw’s cautionary tale of classes and acceptance, Pygmalion, has seen umpteen variations, revivals and versions over the year, perhaps most notably in the cloying and foppish (and hugely popular) film, My Fair Lady, in 1969. The less said about that aberration the better, as Shaw’s play, now vaguely dated, spoke wisely to the London of 1912, in which it was set. The play was first performed in 1913.
The name of the play comes from the Greek tale of the Cypriot sculptor Pygmalion, who, “having no use for women,” eventually falls in love with a sculpture of one he has created.
In Shaw’s tale, a noted phonetics professor, Henry Higgins, (Bruce Turk) wagers a friend, Colonel Pickering, (played by Stan Egi) that he can “pick up” a ragged street woman, and in three months, transform her to the point where she can pass as a Duchess at an annual ball.
The play, currently at the Pasadena Playhouse, features the aforementioned Turk and Egi as well as Paige Lindsey White as the precocious Eliza Doolittle, the object of the two mens’ “experiment.”
The production is notable in two aspects, both the product of director Jessica Kubzansky. The first is the innovative staging and design. The play opens as a group of society folk are caught in a London rainstorm. We hear the sound of the pouring rain, which is illuminated by lines and sentences streaming downward, as though raining words down upon the production, thus illustrating the importance of language in the story.
The physical transformation of the set between acts—from street corner to Higgins’ home to his mother’s parlor—done mostly by the cast itself, is also effective and charming.
The second is the oddly diverse casting, seemingly done only for diversity’s sake. Casting Japanese-American Egi as Colonel Pickering and African-American Carolyn Ratteray as Clara Eynsford-Hill as the daughter of Mrs. Eynsford-Hill, a white society woman, is merely confusing, rather than anything bold or statement-making. Neither is particularly convincing, through the blame is not theirs, but the casting decision.
Both Turk and White are notable as Higgins and Doolittle, respectively. Though most of the acting is broad and almost cartoonish, both actors bring a little extra to the role, especially White. Her Doolittle is finely-tuned, bringing a mature, streetwise sensibility and a little extra gravitas to a role that could easily have been parody.
Turk is both elegant and clownish as the character demands, but again, like White’s, the role could have been messy in anyone else’s hands. Compared to the slightly rumpled and fussy Rex Harrison in the film, Turk is Mad Men’s Don Draper.
Time Winters also brought a human, though still vaguely broad, interpretation to his role as Alfred Dolittle, Eliza’s proudly ne’er-do-well father.
While Shaw’s work fails to really ring true in today’s classless (but still race-challenged) America, the universal lesson still hits home. It is the classic irony, as Higgins eventually falls in love with his “sculpture,” who of course, is unable to return his love. She is too much a product of his making and personality.
“Pygmalion” runs through April 12 at the Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena. Tuesdays through Friday evenings at 8 p.m; Saturdays at 4 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. (626) 356-7529. www.pasadenaplayhouse.org.
