By Kelly Monaghan, August, 25 2024

The works of George Bernard Shaw seem to be almost an afterthought these days at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, which was founded precisely to honor his considerable output. Severn Thompson’s smashing production of “Candida” is a bracing reminder that the Festival ignores the master at its peril.

The Candida of the title (Sochi Fried) is the vivacious, thirty-something wife of the Rev. James Morell (Sanjay Talwar), a parson with socialist leanings, much to the distress of her father, one Mr. Burgess (Ric Reid), a rough-hewn captain of industry who sees no point in mollycoddling the working class.

Sanjay Talwar, Johnathan Sousa. Photo by Emily Cooper

Enjoying the hospitality of the Morell household is Eugene Marchbanks (Johnathan Sousa) a seemingly down at the heels 18-year-old poet whom the good Reverend rescued from sleeping on the Embankment only to discover that he is the son of an earl. Rounding out the establishment are Proserpine Garnett (Gabriella Sundar Singh stepping in for Claire Jullien at the performance I saw), Morell’s secretary, and Lexy Mill (Damien Atkins), his curate.

The rather high-strung Marchbanks has a brain awhirl with poetic excess and we quickly learn is carrying a bonfire-sized torch for Candida. With that verbal legerdemain so distinctive that it gave birth to the term “Shavian,” Shaw treats us to the spectacle of a battle of wits and words between Morell and Marchbanks as they struggle over which of them has the strongest claim to Candida’s love and who will ultimately possess her.

Johnathan Sousa, Sochi Fried. Photo by Emily Cooper

In lesser hands than Shaw’s this could have made for heavy going and even with Shaw providing one great speech after another Candida can still be a hard slog in the wrong hands.

Fortunately, this “Candida” boasts a strong cast, as frequent visitors to Niagara-on-the-Lake will be able to tell from the cast list. More important, the production has a superlative director in Severn Thompson.

She has moved the action up to 1954, presumably to remind us how recently women lived under an oppressive patriarchy. I would have preferred staying in the late Victorian era of the play’s creation, which better matches Shaw’s language, but fortunately no fatal damage is done as we do the time warp again.

Thompson has quite clearly chosen to keep the rivalry of the two men at a fierce simmer, which worked quite well for me although the lady sitting to my right felt that Marchbanks could have been “dialed back” a bit. Perhaps. Quibbles about tone aside, Talwar and Sousa give compelling performances that highlight the considerable stakes of the competition.

Fried, fulfills the promise of her most impressive Festival debut as the king’s mistress in last season’s The Apple Cart. She is an absolutely enchanting Candida, lithe and lissome and beautifully spoken. No wonder the two male leads (and I suspect more than a few in the audience) are smitten with her. I look forward to seeing her embrace more roles from Shaw’s considerable output.

Sanjay Talwar, Claire Jullien. Photo by Emily Cooper

It strikes me that one of the hallmarks of a great director is the attention lavished on subsidiary characters and indeed Atkins and Reid (who are reprising major roles as Holmes and Watson this season) almost steal the show with their richly detailed comic turns as Burgess and Lexy.

I might note parenthetically that another mark of a great director is versatility and Thompson’s bona fides in that regard is on ample display in the totally different, and equally successful, “Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes” at the Blyth Festival this season.”

Set designer Michelle Tracy has created a set for St. Dominic’s rectory that is old fashioned enough to make the 1954 setting less jarring than it otherwise might have been and Louise Guinand has lit it judiciously, especially in the play’s final moment.

I suspect costume designer Ming Wong would have had a lot more fun with fin de siècle costumes, but she follows Tracy’s lead in not making the 50s’ theme too distracting.

Over the years, the Shaw Festival’s so-called “original mandate” (just Shaw), was modified (plays written during Shaw’s long lifetime), and eventually tossed out completely. This Candida – the only Shaw on offer this season (and, no, My Fair Lady doesn’t count) – made this old fuddy-duddy yearn for the good old days.

DETAILS DETAILS
Candida
Through Oct. 13
The Shaw Festival Theatre
85 Queen St, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON L0S 1J0
Book Online:https://www.shawfest.com/playbill/one-man-two-guvnors/#dates
Call the box office: 905-468-2172 / 1-800-511-7429

 

Kelly Monaghan divides his time between Stratford and the Connecticut shore. He chronicles his love affair with Canadian theatre at OntarioStage.com