Shavian vessel of black comedy

Press, 23 October 1978, Page 4

Shavian vessel of black comedy

By

Howard McNaughton

“Heartbreak House,’’ by George Bernard Shaw. Directed by Bryan Aitken for the Court Theatre, Christchurch Arts Centre. Running time: 8 p.m. to 10.45 p.m. The 1920 premiere was al) but disastrous; but since then “Heartbreak House” has gradually risen in popularity to become, in the 19605, several major critics’ choice, as Shaw’s best play. The froth and the bounce, the inversions and the paradoxes, all the stylistic quirks of the young Shaw are here in residue; but they cannot conceal a deep pessimism, a post-war gloom which even the brilliance of Shaw’s preface cannot alleviate. In this play, Shaw finally gave up misreading Ibsen and turned to Chekhov as mentor and Strindberg as moralist; between them, they left little room for creative evolution, and so this play, helped by its Presleyan title, properly found its audience only when black comedy became fashionable about 20 years ago. i The central metaphor is jnot very complex. The set ; represents a house built like I a ship which turns out to be I the Ship of State, drifting I with its upper-class inhabit-

ants into the First World War. The men are mostly frauds of one sort or other. Paul Sonne is excellent in a surprise casting as Captain Shotover, the alocholic mediator at the helm; Tony Wahren gives a strong and intelligent performance of Mangan, the Boss who is the slave of the capitalist system; John Watson does an engagingly detailed interpretation of Hector, presenting him as the realist of the piece, parading as a legendary hero. The more straightforward (male characters all have I their appeal, too: Philip I Holder as Mazzini Dunn, (Michael Williams as Utter(wood, and William Kircher is very popular as a pirate disguised as a burglar disguised as Spike Milligan. Female characterisation was one of Shaw’s weak areas, and there is little to distinguish the women of this play from the heartless, sexless predators of the “Plays Unpleasant.” As Guiness and Lady Utterwood, Judy Gibson and Helen Smith have a consistency and confidence which brings out the best ol the parts; as Ellie and Hesione, Mary Spencer and Elizabeth Moody make ar unhappy combination in the ■ first act but are excellent as , Shaw’s characters solidify later.

In the case of Ellie, we have a Strindbergian vampire in the making, and in the case of Hesione a statuesque siren, a sphinx who conceals her true nature behind “eyes like the fishpools of Heshbon.” Considering Shaw’s demands, it is perhaps not surprising that an actress should take some time to reveal every contour of her personality. As with “The Apple Cart,” “Heartbreak House” makes for difficult stage interpretation because of the baldness of its central metaphor; if made explicit from the start, the “Ship of State” motif seems naive, but if only stated at the end it leaves the audience spending two acts looking for the core of the narrative. In the 1890 s, Shaw would have built a play from the verbal acrobatics of these characters around a central “problem” like the marriage issue; by 1917, he could no longer indulge in the facile isolation of “problems” or in the witticisms of his characters, and so for the first time he wrote a play without a stratagem, like the nation it reflects. This is a difficult and fascinating play; Bryan Aitken and his cast are to be congratulated for proving 'it workable, even if some areas still prove problematic.