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Pygmalion
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Pygmalion
April 23rd - May 5th
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“You see this creature with her kerbstone English … Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party”. With these words the arrogant and insensitive Professor Henry Higgins, expert in phonetics, strikes a wager with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can transform the speech and manners of the Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle. Higgins single-mindedly pursues his aim but what will be the true cost of victory?
First performed a century ago, Pygmalion is full of Shaw’s characteristic wit and observation. Perhaps his best-known and most enduring play, it was the inspiration for the film comedy She’s All That and for the musical My Fair Lady.
Malvern Theatres Stage Company and Director Nic Lloyd present their second major production, following their success with A Christmas Carol in 2022.
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes (including interval)
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Event Reviews
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Steve
Great production. Over the years I have become so familiar with My Fair Lady that I have tended to disregard the bits of text between the songs! But in seeing Shaw’s play for the first time in decades, I am reminded what a brilliant play it is - witty, sharp and thoroughly entertaining. Much of the social insight remains relevant today, although Henry Higgins’s more politically incorrect quips succeeded in drawing the odd gasp. Director Nic Lloyd did an ingenious job rearranging the action from the proscenium arch to an in-the-round conception. And the cast were outstanding - sterling performances from the regulars, and a special word for Emily Henry, a terrific, vivid Eliza in both her posh and her gutter personae. Try and see it while you can!
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Peter
A brilliant performance by a talented young cast, highly entertaining and fun. The 'in the round' stage made it feel very intimate.
Highly recommended. -
The view from the stalls
An effective and simply-staged version of the Shaw classic.
There is nothing sophisticated about the set for Pygmalion at Studio One - indeed it is simply two large wooden boxes upon which the actors sit and around which they stroll unencumbered as they present the story to an audience which is in very close proximity and on all four sides. Any lack of scenery naturally concentrates the audience's attention on the young actors themselves, which is just how it should be.
Now well over 100 years old, George Bernard Shaw's comedy of manners, social class and upbringing, as well the importance of language and diction, can both delight and horrify modern-day audiences, especially those who know it only as the sugary and romanticised musical My Fair Lady.
The two main characters are, of course, the always well-dressed Henry Higgins and scruffy Eliza Doolittle played by Toby Burchell and Emily Henry, who faultlessly and believably spar with each other - each giving as good as they get but inevitably it will be Higgins who wins as he is from a higher social order. The transformation by Emily from course, dirty street-corner flower-seller (but with a good heart) to a persona aimed at being good enough to fool everyone at a ball is remarkable - you would hardly know it was the same actor. Gone is the crude East End language, accent and topics of conversation (Higgins claiming to be able to place any Londoner to within 3 streets of where they were born), all replaced by a refined vocabulary and dress sense. All perfunctory and artificial of course as when the humour of the transformation is replaced with the sad reality of the situation, Eliza Doolittle knows full well that she is just acting a part for Higgins and really has nowhere to go with it.
The attitude of Higgins towards his young ward is often quite shocking (to a current audience at least), often being aggressive and referring to her as a "squashed cabbage leaf" and whilst physical violence does not occur, it is nonetheless alluded to as when he threatens to "wring her neck". Has Eliza actually changed? In a moment of relapse whilst setting off for home, she says "Walk? Not bloody likely!" (the risky use of the word 'bloody' becoming known as a "Pygmalion"). She also has to explain to her peers what "done her in" means, showing that the new modulated tomes of her voice cannot disguise the words that she speaks.
In addition to the two main characters, the show also has Jessie-Mae Thomas as both Mrs Eynsford-Hill and Mrs Pearce, Edward Kirby as her son Freddy (who has his heart set on Eliza), Henry R Pyne as Colonel Pickering who, whilst having the same interest in language as Higgins at least goes about it in a rather more respectful way), Abbie Steele as Mrs Higgins (poor Mrs Higgins, one might say!) and Rhys Harris-Clarke as Alfred, the somewhat conniving father of Eliza.
Together they present a funny and touching account of the separation between the layers of society at the time and that, despite his efforts, Higgins never truly manages to get Eliza to shake off her past and who she really is.
