Shaw Festival brings back the past for the present season

As part of the Shaw Festival's 50th Anniversary season, they are celebrating with a couple of shows from their past:  one from the not-too-distant past and the other from their very first season 50 years ago.  Both bring with them a good deal of entertainment at the small Royal George Theatre.

The annual Lunchtime Show at the Royal George is often a hit-and-miss affair, but three years ago when they staged Morwyn Brebner's wonderful adaptation of Ferenc Molnar's the President, people had no idea what they were in for.  What they were in for, as it turned out, was a one-act farcical tour-de-force with a good-sized cast lead by Shaw stalwart Lorne Kennedy.

This year, knowing the show is back again, the people are returning in droves for the Lunchtime Show, and many, many more are taking advantage of an opportunity missed the last time.  If that includes you, I suggest you run, not walk, to your phone or computer now to order tickets before the run ends October 9th.

Kennedy is the glue that holds this whole thing together, of course, displaying comic timing and a rapid-fire delivery that leaves the audience breathless.  He is, if anything, even better this time out than last time, and the fact he is only doing the lunchtime offering this year is an indication just how demanding the role is.  Imagine learning all those lines and delivering them faster than almost humanly possible for the better part of an hour!

But he's not alone.  Kennedy is surrounded by an all-star cast of Shaw regulars who know what is needed with this production and deliver with style to spare.  Peter Millard's Bartleby, The President's assistant, is up to the task of keeping up with the boss, and Kennedy's comic foil for much of the play is Jeff Meadows as Tony Foot, the love of the life of Julie Martell's Lydia, the young lady Kennedy has been charged with "guarding' on behalf of her parents who are on their way for a visit with their daughter.

The daughter, of course, couldn't have picked a worse candidate for her husband, and it is up to Kennedy to bring him up to snuff, as it were, and make him into a titan of business in under an hour in order to impress Lydia's parents.  He does it, but the road to that end is full of bumps and for us, laughs.

You will not find a better ensemble-piece anywhere this summer, and this is the perfect show to add to your one-day or weekend theatre stay in Niagara-on-the-Lake.  The President, directed by Blair Williams with a sure hand, and impeccable timing, continues at the Royal George Theatre until October 9th and rates a very strong 4 out of 4 stars.

The second historical offering at the Shaw Festival this season is a remount of their very first show 50 years ago, Shaw's Candida.  It continues at the Royal George Theatre until October 30th.

Directed by Tadeusz Bradecki with a beautiful set design by William Schmuck, this Candida has flashes of life and some lovely, tender moments between husband and wife as well as said wife with not-so-distant admirer, but there doesn't appear to be a lot of fire ignited between the three main protagonists.  They do well enough, but I can recall earlier productions of Candida at Shaw that have proven more memorable than this one.

That being said, we have some good, solid performances here, beginning with The Reverend James Mavor Morell, played with a lot of enthusiasm by Nigel Shawn Williams.  His wife, Candida Morell, is nicely played by Claire Jullien, who shows a lot of spirit in her confrontations with her husband and young suitor.  That suitor is played by Wade Bogert-O'Brien, as Eugene Marchbanks, an idealistic young man who challenges Rev. Morrell for the hand of his wife.  This Marchbanks is all very well and good, but I found myself wondering just what the attraction was for Mrs. Morrell with this young lad; but then, his desire for a mother-figure perhaps aroused some special feelings in her that logic can't quite explain.

There are more laughs in Candida than we are used to in a Shaw play, and since it is an earlier work by Shaw, dating as it does from 1897, it is much less of a Shavian Rant and more of a real play.  And a relatively brief one at that.

Candida rates a respectable 3 out of 4 stars, and continues at the Royal George until October 30th.

August 15th, 2011.