| Performance details | Venue: York Theatre Royal Dates: 27 May - 17 Jun 2006 Tickets: £8.50 - £18.00 Box office: 01904 623568 |
As rain drops falling on a cobbled street are projected onto a screen at the back of the set, and reflected on the faux-marble floor, the stage fills with the majority of the small cast that will effortlessly hold the audience's attention for the next two and a half hours. Then, true to the ever-popular film of My Fair Lady, based on the George Bernard Shaw tale being told this evening, 'York Theatre Royal presents... Pygmalion' is spelt out in a script font, over the puddles forming on the screen. This clever cinematic device is to be used throughout, as we move from one act to another.
 | | Eliza and Clara |
As the scene before us unfolds, I quickly become engrossed. Eliza (mesmerisingly played by Sarah Quintrell) is disgustingly common, Clara and Mrs Eynsford Hill disgustingly snooty, and Professor Higgins (deliciously Basil Fawlty-like) disgustingly arrogant - exactly as they should be! And throughout the play, as their relationships with each other deepen, these characters only get better. You don't have to know that Bernard Shaw was a socialist agitator to realise Pygmalion is an attack on the bourgoise. As Damien Cruden, artistic director of the production, says, "Shaw drives a coach and horses through the drawing rooms of polite society, questioning class prejudice, misogyny and social snobbery".
 | | Eliza's emotions set them apart... |
But you do have to see Pygmalion performed as sympathetically as this to realise that it's as much about the individual. A good example of this is Professor Higgins, whose conceitedness Eliza mistakes for snobbery. But as he explains, whilst it might not be to her taste, he treats everybody the same; he's not nice to anyone, rich or poor. And it's this trait, not class, that sets Higgins and Eliza apart, making it impossible for the play to resort to the saccharine ending of My Fair Lady. For whilst Eliza learns that she has as much right to be loved as the next woman, Higgins remains unable to provide the passion she so desires. And whilst I wholly appreciate 'The End' being projected on the screen at the back of the set, I'm satisfied that this film-style ending only takes place after Eliza has walked away from Professor Higgins for the last time. Katy Wright | 
