Terry Morgan
George Bernard Shaw wrote Heartbreak House during and as a response to World War One. It was first staged in 1920, and in one scene he has a character decry the people in power at that time: “What then is to be done? Are we to be kept forever in the mud by these hogs to whom the universe is nothing but a machine for greasing their bristles and filling their snouts?” While seeing the new production at Antaeus Theatre Company and hearing these lines performed, it hit me that nothing much has changed in the past hundred years, except that the hogs in question are even fatter now. Heartbreak House is certainly still timely, but this new presentation is much more than that – it’s witty, brilliantly acted and artfully entertaining.
Ellie (Elinor Gunn), her father Mazzini (Arye Gross) and her possible fiancé, Boss Mangan (Bernard Addison), have been invited by Hesione (Jocelyn Towne) to a party at the home of her father, Captain Shotover (Harry Groener). Ellie isn’t sure she wants to marry Mangan, because she’s fallen for an actor she met. She’s appalled to find out that actor is actually Hector (Henri Lubatti), Hesione’s mendacious if harmless husband. Things are shaken up further by the unexpected arrival of Hesione’s long-absent sister, Lady Utterword (Carolyn Ratteray), and her brother-in-law Randall (Alex Barlas). The group flirts and argues passionately, blissfully unconcerned that war is on its way.
Gunn impresses as Ellie, who begins the play bemoaning her situation but ends up empowered, and Gross is effortlessly charming as Mazzini, a man everyone initially underestimates but learns to admire. Towne is delightfully manipulative as Hesione, and Lubatti is superb as the silkily seductive Hector. Addison manages to reveal the vulnerability underlying Mangan’s rough reputation, and Barlas is very funny as the easily subdued Randall. Ratteray is a comedic force of nature as the conformist Lady Utterword and is especially impressive in a scene in which she reduces Randall to a petulant child. Groener brings an easy gravitas to his performance as Shotover, particularly in his delivery of a speech about how different generations look at life, his character the only one to realize all along that the life they’re living is a farce pretending not to be a tragedy.
Nike Doukas does the impressive staging/pacing feat of not only keeping all ten characters distinct but also brings out all of the intelligence and cleverness of Shaw’s writing via the clarity of her direction. In lesser hands, Shaw can come off as didactic, but the performers in this show are expert, and what could be exhausting is instead exhilarating. In some ways this play can be seen as a product of its specific time, but I imagine if Shaw was with us today, he would be no less heartbroken at how the people of the world still treat each other, unfortunately.
Heartbreak House is presented by Antaeus Theatre Company at the Kiki and David Gindler Performing Arts Center through November 16. Tickets are available at https://antaeus.org/
Pauline Adamek