| By
Rosie Hetherington
Try
to forget “My Fair Lady” this is a darker and much funnier version
of Shaw’s most popular comedy. It’s difficult when you know the
songs that should be there. The youthful cast do well but the movie
influences still show through. Maybe the Hollywood version was a
little too weak and insipid; this is a stronger brew and all the
better for it.
Despite
being written nearly a century ago, “Eliza” is very much a modern
heroine. Not exactly “Bridget Jones” the romance is secondary and
unimportant to civilised educated gentlemen. To be treated with
respect by a rise through society is the goal not a husband. Of
course, times have changed and two bachelors sharing a house with
a young woman is fairly common. Nowadays, it’s the two bachelors
living together that might produce the sort of gossip society then
frowned upon.
Director
Alison Convey has made great use of the space with a simple set
standing for so many different exterior and interior scenes. The
use of recordings made by “Higgins” of various vowel sounds is most
effective while the scene is changed. It does however highlight
the difficulty in identifying such similar sounding accents.
Helen
Winston as “Eliza” expertly portrays her growth from downtrodden
flower girl to emancipated Lady. Her uncouth sounds becoming more
genteel as she begins to understand the world around her better.
She is dominated by Himanshu Ojha’s energetic “Higgins”. He leaps
around the stage with a blustering passion unsuspected in an old
professor.
Praise
to the supporting cast of Will Blair as an embarrassed “Pickering”
and Laura Corcoran as the matronly “Mrs Higgins”. Sam Thomas as
“Doolittle” maintains his comic character genius.
The
views expressed in these comments are those of the contributor's
and not the BBC.
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