| By
Rosie Hetherington
Try
to forget 鈥淢y Fair Lady鈥 this is a darker and much funnier version
of Shaw鈥檚 most popular comedy. It鈥檚 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, 鈥淓liza鈥 is very much a modern
heroine. Not exactly 鈥淏ridget Jones鈥 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鈥檚 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 鈥淗iggins鈥 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 鈥淓liza鈥 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鈥檚 energetic 鈥淗iggins鈥. 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 鈥淧ickering鈥
and Laura Corcoran as the matronly 鈥淢rs Higgins鈥. Sam Thomas as
鈥淒oolittle鈥 maintains his comic character genius.
The
views expressed in these comments are those of the contributor's
and not the 成人快手.
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