Shaw Festival
Through October 11
CANDIDA Royal George Theatre/Shaw Festival
There are three people in the room, one adult and two boys.
The adult is Candida (Sochi Fried).
She’s the wife of Rev. James Mavor Morell (Sanjay Talwar).
She’s also the lust object of an 18-year-old aristocratic sprig, a poet in his own mind and friend of the reverend.
That’s Eugene Marchbanks (Johnathan Sousa).
This is all going on inside George Bernard Shaw’s “Candida,” a prescient and popular show staged by the Shaw Festival in 1962, 1970, 1983, 1993 and 2011.
Claire Jullien was Candida in the 2011 production and is Miss Proserpine Garnett in this effort, although she was off the night I saw the show, replaced by Gabriella Sundar Singh.
Shaw was deeply involved with the political and labor strife around him, with this production moved forward 60 years to 1954, from the political and social strife of the late Victorian age to the post-World War II era, with Britain still struggling to recover economically.
Morell is out all the time from his North London church, carrying his social message to people who don’t want to hear it from the pulpit, like Candida’s rich father, Mr. Burgess (Ric Reid).
Meanwhile, Marchbanks is constantly moving in on Candida, using his awful poetry.
Finally, Candida decides to pit Marchbanks and Morell, with them thinking she will really make the choice in a competition.
The boys don’t understand what’s going on.
In the end, Candida stays with the reverend, although the contact rules have changed.
Marchbanks leaves and won’t be back.
Now, the story is older but it’s still true of the relationship between men and women.
Shaw was far ahead in his social views although his marriage and his relationships with women weren’t always pleasant.
That’s why Candida can seem a little contemporary in the way she decides what to do, uncommon in the time when the play was written.
There is a psychological question.
Why doesn’t she just bail on both of the boys and move on with her life?
Most of us have friends who faced variations of that same question.
“Candida” is a fascinating tale of life and its choices.
The Shaw production is very strong, on the single set from Michelle Tracey.
Director Severn Thompson does a nice job keeping the tale together and not letting anyone in the cast get carried away.
Sochi Fried’s Candida dominates the play, even with Talwar being taller and armed with the power of his clerical uniform.
Sousa is nice as the lagging adolescent Marchbanks, without ever going over the top.
Reid has a small part as Mr. Burgess but does a lot with it, as the annoying capitalist,
Morell has a young curate, Rev. Lexy Mills (Damien Atkins), seemingly confused by real life in the rectory.
It’s all fun and educational.
See “Candida.”
A.W.
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