Shaw Festival's The Philanderer hits some highs, and some lows

My final visit for the season to the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake earlier this month was at the Festival Theatre for a much-anticipated production of Bernard Shaw's The Philanderer.  Overall, it is great fun, but with some reservations from your humble scribe.

The Shaw Festival has staged this early Shaw play (his second, in fact, dating from 1893) three times previously in Niagara-on-the-Lake, most recently in 2007, directed by Alisa Palmer.  It's easy to see why, as Shaw is still finding his voice, if you will, and the play reflects the fresh approach to live theatre Shaw specialized in for many years.  It still argues points near and dear to the author's heart, to be sure, but this play predates his long-winded and oftentimes tiresome rants of later years.

This new production is directed by New York-based Shaw afficionado Lisa Peterson, making her Shaw Festival directorial debut.  She admits in her Director's Notes to not originally being a big fan of this play, having seen it a few times before, and suggesting she considered it more of a drawing-room comedy than anything else.  But Peterson was tempted to take another look at the play when the option to include Shaw's original third act came into play.  That changes everything, it seems, and for good reason.

Considered rather racy for its time, it was recommended by Shaw's friend, Lady Colin Campbell, the original third act be thrown in the fire and Shaw take another stab at it.  He rewrote the third act, certainly, but never threw the original into the fire, and it is now returned to its rightful place as the fitting conclusion to a fun play about an English dandy who wants to play with the feelings of two society women at the same time.

For many audience-goers this year, this will be their first exposure to the so-called "lost" third act, and it does change the play's dynamics enough to warrant you seeing the play yet again, even if you saw the last edition directed by Palmer in 2007.  Back then as well as in 1995, the original third act was added as a sort of sequel to the rewritten third act; this time the original supersedes the later version and moves the action four years into the future during the play.

For the most part, I like this new production and where it takes the audience.  However, there are some speed bumps along the way I for one find a little annoying.

On the plus side, Peterson keeps the action moving at a brisk pace and gets stellar performances from a great cast of Shaw Festival actors, including Marla McLean and Moya O'Connell as the two women protagonists in the story, as well as Gord Rand as the lover of both of them, Leonard Charteris.  He claims to want to marry Grace Tranfield, played by McLean, all the while entertaining thoughts of his previous paramour, the slightly older Julia Craven, played by O'Connell.  Both women want Leonard, of course, and so the plot thickens...

On the down side, the pace can be a little too light for my tastes, especially in the first two acts when Peterson seems to have created a live stage version of a television situation comedy.  It is not over-the-top, but there are moments a little more restraint and respect for the author and his play might have been in order.  So too at the end of the third act, when a sort of stop-action love-making session concludes the evening's proceedings.

Speaking of love-making, as the curtain goes up on the lavish set designed by Sue LePage, we see Charteris and Tranfield in a most compromising position on the drawing-room floor, which you must admit is not often the case as a Shaw play starts.  But hey, they were just following the author's sketchy directions, after all...

The rest of the cast is strong for the most part, backing up the three main characters with some equally impressive performances:  Michael Ball as Mr. Joseph Cuthbertson; Ric Reid as Colonel Daniel Craven, who suffers from a malady Jeff Meadows as Dr. Percival Paramore thinks he has figured out, but ultimately hasn't.

The only disappointment in the casting for me was Harveen Sandhu as Sylvia Craven, who appears to be a little over the top throughout the first two acts.  I know the role is not supposed to blend into the woodwork, but it was a bit too much, I felt.

So, does Lisa Peterson hit a home run?  Depending on who you ask, yes she did, so much so there is early talk Peterson might be the heir apparent to Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell when her term ends before too long.  That might be a little presumptuous, I think, until we see more of Lisa's handiwork in the future, and make no mistake, she will be directing at the Shaw Festival again in the future.

There is a lot to like in this new production of The Philanderer and it could quite possibly be one of the big box-office winners for the Festival once all is said and done this season, even with a later opening.  But there were times in this production I couldn't help but think too much liberty might have been taken with Shaw's early comedy.  As such, while still considered a winner this season, especially due to the return of the original third act, this won't be my favourite Shaw Festival production of the play.

There is still lots of time to catch the show, as it runs at the Festival Theatre until October 12th, and it rates a solid three out of four stars.

For tickets and more information, go to www.shawfest.com or call 1-800-511-7429.

See you at the theatre!

August 26th, 2014.