Reviews
THE TWELVE-POUND LOOK Court House Theatre
By
Jul 17, 2015, 12:11

Shaw Festival
Through September 12
THE TWELVE-POUND LOOK Court House Theatre/Shaw Festival

If you are planning on spending an afternoon in Niagara-on-the-Lake at the Shaw Festival, you should go early for the 11:30 a.m. (some days) performance of J.M Barrie’s “Twelve-Pound Look.”
Yes, this is the same person who wrote “Peter Pan,” but there are differences, deep differences.
There is certainly illusion in the shorter play but it’s the illusion of the male lead in the show, Patrick Galligan’s Harry Sims, just days away from having his shoulders tapped in the age-old ceremony of becoming a knight, Sir Harry.
He’s a guy who knows women, just ask his wife (Kate Besworth), about to be Lady Sims, wife of a rich guy who’s getting richer and mother of two future upper crust guys in a world about to be torn apart by World War I, which changed the situation of women across the world.
There is a catch in this story of the prosperous life and he’s reminded of it this one stage day, when he hires a typist to come in and prepare the thank you letters to the congratulatory letters on his knighthood.
It’s Kate (Moya O’Connell), sent by the agency.
What the agency doesn’t know is that she was Harry’s first wife, who walked away from the marriage for reasons he doesn’t know or understand.
After all, he understands women. Right?
The second wife doesn’t know about the first wife.
That’s the plot, Harry learning he understands very little and Kate breaking every rule of men and women in Edwardian society and perfectly happy doing it.
She left one night when she could earn her own living and does.
Now, that might seem pretty self-evident a century later, although it isn’t.
Barrie recognized what many didn’t, that the typewriter changed the relationship between men and women.
And that’s the play’s ending, the future Lady Sims changing and not realizing it.
This is 35 minutes of one age ending and another beginning, with lessons to our age.
“The Twelve-Pound Look” is really worth seeing.
It features wonderful performances from Galligan, O’Connell and Besworth, along with quick efforts from Neil Barclay and Harveen Sandhu.
Before going off to more lightweight shows or even the pointed nature of “Pygmalion,” check out the pointed social comment of “The Twelve-Pound Look.”

A.W.


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