THEATRE REVIEW: MAJOR BARBARA


Pictured: Nicole Underhay, Graeme Somerville

JOHN COULBOURN, Special to TorSun
12 MAY 2013
R: 3.5/5

TORONTO - NIAGARA-ON-THE LAKE — In a world obsessed with religion and guns — and how to control the excesses of both — there is something refreshing in a work like Bernard Shaw’s MAJOR BARBARA, if for no other reason than it reminds us that while times change, issues too often remain the same. Premiered in 1905, the play — considered to be one of the celebrated Irish polemicist’s major works — tackles both religion and the arms’ industry in such a way that society comes out looking pretty shabby. And as the new Royal George production that launched the 2013 Season here at the Shaw Festival Friday proves, it can still, on occasion, pack a pretty solid punch on both fronts.

The protagonists are certainly memorable. In one corner, representing religion is the Major Barbara of title, played here by Nicole Underhay, a beautiful and zealous officer in the Salvation Army, determined to bring comfort to a troubled and poverty-riven world. Meanwhile, in the other, representing a world where might is right, her long estranged and fabulously wealthy father, Andrew Undershaft, played by Benedict Campbell, determined to win his newly discovered and good-hearted daughter to his point of view.

Their world views collide in a dense, talky sort of play — hardly surprising, considering the dense, talky canon of its playwright — but it is given considerable energy in a production helmed by Jackie Maxwell, tucked seamlessly (if a trifle fussily) into the George’s more intimate confines by designer Judith Bowden. With solid turns from her two principals — Campbell unleashing his impressive vocal power and Underhay falling back on a gamin quality to enliven one of Shaw’s most enduring heroines — Maxwell scores only a mixed success with the rest of her casting.

On the plus side, Graeme Somerville is cast as Barbara’s happily adaptable fiance, Adolphus, and mines it for pure dramatic gold, turning in one of the evening’s finest performances, while veterans like Laurie Paton (as Barbara’s aristocratic mother) and Catherine McGregor and Peter Krantz (as the troubled Rummy Mitchens and Peter Shirley respectively) also impress, even if one might occasionally quibble with some of their choices.

But sadly, under Maxwell’s direction, too many of the younger actors — Ben Sanders, Wade Bogert-O’Brien, Billy Lake and James Pendarves to name a few — turn in overly-fussy audition pieces, blissfully unaware that, as beasts of burden for Shaw’s point of view, too much acting gets in the way.

In addition, and without apology, Maxwell chooses to weight the piece in favour of Undershaft and his world view, and while her revisionism should not be dismissed lightly, it ultimately smacks too much of a director approaching Othello with a determination to throw the fight to Iago. Ultimately this Undershaft is too charming, Major Barbara too softly compliant. So, in the end, while this production has an undeniable charm, Maxwell’s fresh take on Major Barbara stops somewhat shy of being a major success.