PYGMALION To 31 October.

Mold.

PYGMALION
by George Bernard Shaw.

Clwyd Theatr Cymru (Anthony Hopkins Theatre) To 31 October 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 2.30pm.
Runs 2hr 40min One interval.

TICKETS: 0845 330 3565.
www.clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 October.

A Pygmalion that leaps to life.
It’s often pointed out that Bernard Shaw shows speech-expert Henry Higgins draining the life from young flower-seller Eliza Doolittle by making her speak like a society lady. Terry Hands’ production seems to make this point when a dandified Eliza becomes the centre of mannequins revolving around the stage at the grand ball where Higgins parades her.

But Hands shows this is precisely what doesn’t happen. He charts the way the play’s women immediately spot that Eliza will be isolated when Higgins has finished with her, but her later lapses from linguistic perfection when annoyed or surprised show there’s still spirit in her. Only now she can articulate it.

Jolly as he is, Robert Blythe’s Pickering, usually the considerate one to Higgins’ casual callousness, shows the kindly-intentioned Colonel can be forgetful too, sitting by a smouldering Eliza and talking of her in the third person.

Shaw resisted attempts to sentimentalise the end, pointing out that bringing Higgins and Eliza together would make a disastrous match. The author preferred the idea Eliza would hitch up with besotted young Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Hands stays true to that, in an ending where the young people meet in the street where she’s living while Higgins stands detached on the raised stage that represents his homes. If Eliza does marry Freddy it’s evident she’ll have to do the providing; Siân Howards’s Mrs Eynsford-Hill make poignantly clear, in a moment Hands highlights, that their family’s the middle-class poor.

She contrasts Eliza’s improvident dustman dad, the one character to delight Higgins – his daughter alone isn't taken in by a character the controversialist Shaw must have loved creating. In John Cording’s outstanding performance Doolittle is forcefully funny while avoiding the danger of becoming a cuddly comic characterisation.

Hedydd Dylan’s Eliza precisely charts the effort that goes into the vowels and errant aspirates of her society appearances, making the later private lapses convincing; the effort reduces though never quite disappears. It’s finely done, more so than Hands’ occasional attempts to make Higgins humorous, serially tripping over furniture. But this freshly-imagined production rarely trips, especially in doing so much for the Doolittles.

Clara Eynsford-Hill: Katie Morton.
Mrs Eynsford-Hill: Siân Howard.
Freddy Eynsford-Hill: Guy Lewis.
Eliza Doolittle: Hedydd Dylan.
Colonel Pickering: Robert Blythe.
Henry Higgins: Philip Bretherton.
Mrs Pearce: Betsan Llwyd.
Alfred Doolittle: John Cording.
Mrs Higgins: Meg Wynn Owen.
Parlourmaid: Charlotte Gray.
Nepommuck: Wayne Cater.

Director/Lighting: Terry Hands.
Designer: Mark Bailey.
Sound: Matthew Williams.
Assistant director: Steven Elliott.

2009-10-30 11:31:20