Review Roundup: Major Barbara Minor Disappointment
Author: dfilas // Category: Review Roundup
by Krista Threadgill
Bread and Circus Theatre Company opened its production of George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara this weekend. Despite a beautiful set and a few fine performances, this reviewer left the show feeling a little let down.
Major Barbara follows the trials of Barbara Undershaft (Aerika Brofford)—a newly promoted Major in the Salvation Army—as her mother, Lady Britomart (Aynn Tichenal) negotiates with Barbara’s estranged father, Andrew Undershaft (Doug Montanero) to secure an income for Barbara and her fiancé, Adolphus Cusins (Tim Fisher). Major Barbara finds herself unwilling to accept money from her father’s coffers because he earns his living building cannons and missiles—both for their native England and for her enemies. Barbara must choose which is more important to her: either an income that will provide for her new husband and their family, or living in poverty forever—or possibly even another alternative that had never occurred to her before.
Howard Carpenter directs an able cast through the long speeches of Shaw’s work. With a run-time of two-and-a-half hours, keeping an audience’s attention is tough work. Several cast members also find maintaining their English accents tough work as well; unfortunately, only a few actors managed to maintain believable, consistent accents through the course of the play. Given the choice, this reviewer would rather that none of them attempted the accents unless all are able to maintain them. It is also unfortunate that the two most interesting characters in this storyline—namely Barbara and Andrew Undershaft—failed to keep my attention through the course of the play. Brofford and Montanero’s long speeches about the power of salvation versus the power of money were delivered well, but some choices by some of their fellow actors turned out to be more distracting than character-driven. For instance, Sarah Undershaft’s (Sydney Friend) constant nail filing makes me wonder if the actress will have any nails left by the end of their run. The one exception to this was the performance of John Sorenson as Barbara’s brother, Stephen Undershaft. His whiny, nasally, mama’s boy character never slipped during his long stretches of silence; and seeing his character move from eye-rolling derision to abject admiration of his father’s business is a delight to behold.
As mentioned before, the set for this production is incredible. My one complaint is that scene changes were time-consuming—about four minutes were needed for each scene change in an act—and slowed down the pace of the play during the downtime. There was also a decision to use blue gels for a few of the lights which ended up washing out the actors’ faces and made them look excessively pale. However, the turn-of-the-century streetlamps were used to great effect, and the rest of the stage lighting was warm and inviting.
All in all, although Bread and Circus’s Major Barbara has a few flaws, it’s definitely still worth watching. The message in Shaw’s work still remains pertinent today, and audience members will find themselves asking some searching questions as they leave the theater at the end of the evening.
Bread and Circus Theatre Company is presenting George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara at the Harmony Artistic Center, 3973 Parkway Lane, Hilliard, on December 11-12 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $12-15 and are available online at www.bctco.org or by phone at (614) 470-4895.
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Krista Threadgill spent her childhood following her parents around the Actors Guild of Parkersburg. After that, she wiled away her summers at Jenny Wiley Amphitheater, and she has performed in two Neil Simon plays. She has an English degree from the Ohio State University.
