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Shavian Cream
Moya O’Connell as Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story. Photo by David Cooper
Posh productions and top performances highlight James MacKillop’s visit to Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Shaw Festival
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verything old is new again at Canada’s Shaw Festival of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. At this year’s fest is one of the most incisive comedies ever written, originally opening in 1906, and has been little seen since, while another offering, a lush romantic comedy, dates from 1939 when art deco was in late bloom.
Founded to honor the works of George Bernard Shaw (18561950) and his contemporaries, the Shaw Festival has been running smoothly for the last 11 years under artistic director Jackie Maxwell. Born in Northern Ireland, Maxwell generally hews to the festival’s mission of presenting well-mounted, provocative, accessible stage works. These often feature well-dressed actors speaking in British accents, but this year one production is Irish and four originated in the U.S.A. Only a few of this summer’s offerings could be called “safe bets,” well-known items that usually draw crowds, like John Kander and Fred Ebb’s Cabaret. Arms and the Man is one of the most popular (and least long-winded) of Shaw’s comedies, and Philip Barry’s The Philadelphia Story lives in collective memory
07.09.14 - 07.15.14 | syracusenewtimes.com
from the 1940 movie adaptation. Both shows are substantially reinterpreted from the familiar in Niagara. All the others are rarities, once box-office hits or critical darlings, but not likely to appear around this neck of the woods. A prime example of what the Shaw Festival does best, and nobody else does, is the revival of St. John (pronounced “Sinjin”) Hankin’s 1906 hit The Charity That Began at Home: A Comedy for Philanthropists (through Oct. 11 at the 327-seat Court House Theatre (26 Queen St.). Sinjin who? Hankin (1869-1909) was a prime contemporary of Shaw and Oscar Wilde, and shares qualities with both of them, but because he died at age 39 he fell through the cracks. Jackie Maxwell’s predecessor, artistic director emeritus Chris-