[NEohioPAL] Berko review: HEARTBREAK HOUSE @ Actors' Equity Association Members' Project Code

Roy Berko via NEohioPAL neohiopal at lists.neohiopal.org
Sun Jun 15 18:56:12 PDT 2014


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*“Heartbreak House” a long sit, but the acting quality may make it worth
the effort*



Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)



George Bernard Shaw, considered by many to be the premiere English
playwright of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, had very
set opinions, which he expressed in his writing.  A member of the Fabian
Society, which was an utopian movement dedicated to establishing a
socialist society, he attacked the English education system, organized
religion, the blindness of the upper classes in ignoring not the needs of
others, but for living lives of deceit and hypocrisy.



Shaw felt that women were the “wiser” and “stronger” of the sexes, that war
was an unnecessary evil, and that people and governments could change.



He wrote dramas filled with comedy and often included farcical overtones.  He
mocked and satirized to make his points.  Many of his plays, as was the
style of the day, were three act, three-hour epics.



Shaw is often compared to the Russian playwright, Chekhov, who also wrote
of the unwillingness of the upper classes to recognize that “the revolution
is coming,” thus earning him the title of the “literary father of the
Russian Revolution.”  Shaw never met with the political effect of Chekov,
but his attitudes toward women’s equality and the rise of Socialism, came
to pass.



Shaw wrote “Heartbreak House” in 1912, but due to the outbreak of World War
I, the opening was delayed until after the war.  Ironically, many of the
pronouncements he had made in the script were enacted by the time the play
was produced.



The play takes place mainly in a room in a manor named Heartbreak House,
which is designed to recreate the interior of a sailing ship.  The place is
owned by The Captain, a former maritime skipper.



The house is a metaphor for a place where the captain and his crew (the
family and guests) journey together through good and bad, beautiful days
and rain- filled eras.



Each of the characters in the play represents some facet of British society.
There is Mangan, the business tycoon, who has been offered a place in the
British government but is, in reality, a fake; the captain’s daughter,
Hesione, a modern Brit with Bohemian attitudes; Mazzini, a nice person who
is taken advantage of; Ellie, Mazzini’s daughter, who will do anything to
marry for money as she believes this is the only way to happiness; Ariadne,
the old time/old liner who believes manners and class standing are most
important; and Randall, the pampered man who has inherited wealth and has
no reason or purpose in life.  They each represent what Shaw saw as,
“ignorance and indifference exhibited by the upper and upper-middle class
that was self-indulgent and lacked the understanding of the central issues
of that days British society.”



Hanging over the entire play is the threat of war, which, even when it
comes, is not fully realized by the inhabitants of Heartbreak House.



Traditionally, local play productions are presented by theatrical producers
(PlayhouseSquare, Great Lakes Theatre), sponsoring theatres (e.g., Dobama,
Beck Center), civic sponsors (Solon Center for the Arts), or educational
institutions.



“Heartbreak House” is produced under the auspices of the Actors’ Equity
Association Members’ Project Code.  The MPC was created in 1987 by Equity,
the labor union that represents professional Actors and Stage Managers in
the United States, for the purpose of permitting members to showcase their
talents.  As of now, according to director, Bernadette Clemens, this  staging
of “Heartbreak House” is a one-time event.



Most plays showcased in the area, unless they are a professional touring
company, may have none or a few equity members.  In this production eleven
of the twelve of the cast are equity members.



One issue with Shaw is that his plays are long. Most modern productions are
cut so that they run about 2 hours.  Not this production.  It is the full
script.  This gives the viewer the advantage of hearing the entire
presentation of the Shavian language as the author intended it.  Viewers
who are used to the recent trend in theatre of ninety-minute stagings will
probably find this a long sit.



The cast are all excellent, but, due to the very live acoustics in the
Pilgrim Church theatre, there are echoes which bounce around and make for
unclear sounds.  This is especially obvious when actors, trained to project
in large performance spaces and proscenium stages with no microphones allow
their full voices to boom in the small enclosure.  This makes understanding
difficult. Also, because of the echo, those speaking in heavy dialects
sound garbled.  It’s a shame because, though the acting is superb, many of
the spoken words are unintelligible.



Director Bernadette Clemens’ staging was excellent and the pacing kept the
show moving, but she needed to work with some of the cast to modify the
yelling and vocalizations to avoid sound overload.



Jason Coale’s scenic and lighting designs and Inda Blatch-Geib’s costumes
enhance the production.



Any organization using the Pilgrim Church auditorium must work on sound
baffling and make their casts aware that excessive projection equals a lack
of vocal clarity.



*CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  Those interested in being exposed to George Bernard
Shaw and his philosophy of life,  the beauty of his language, and his use
of humor and satire to develop his message, and are willing to sit through
three hours of words, words and more words, many of which can’t be grasped
because of the echo in the theatre, will enjoy the MPC production.*



“Heartbreak House: runs through June 29, 2014 at Pilgrim Church in Tremont.
For tickets  call 216-570-3403 or go to http://www.heartbreakhouse.org

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