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by George Bernard Shaw, directed by Tadeusz Bradecki

Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake

May 28-October 30, 2011

“I give you my happiness with both hands.”

This is the Shaw Festival’s sixth production of Candida and no wonder--it is one of Shaw’s funniest and best constructed comedies.  The play has always seemed light and amiable, but, for the first time in my experience, it also was truly gripping.  I enjoyed the Festival’s previous productions in 1993 and 2002, but this is the first time I found myself hanging on every word and worried about how it would end.

Why did this happen?  One answer is the inspired casting of Nigel Shawn Williams as the Anglican minister James Morell.  Morell is happily married to his wife Candida until she brings home one of her “foundlings”, the aristocratic poet Eugene Marchbanks, whom she found sleeping on the Thames Embankment.  Candida may have thought she was merely helping a poor lost soul sort himself out, but Marchbanks believes that his passion for Candida is more powerful than suffocating domestic bliss. 

Williams is the first black actor to play the role in Canada and, quite likely, in all of North America.  While, on the one hand, this can be seen as part of the Shaw Festival’s ongoing pursuit of colour-blind casting.  On the other, the presence on stage of a black male in a role of authority happily married to a white female who entertains doubts about her love because of a white male can’t help but conjure up parallels to Shakespeare’s Othello.  Such a reference is hardly what Shaw could have intended, but that is what this particular mise en scène evokes--and all to the benefit of the play.  The parallel to Shakespeare’s tragedy gives Shaw’s comedy a dynamism and sense of danger that most directors don’t bother to bring out in the play.  Morell, like Othello, admits that he has a temper and we know what the outcome is of doubt and jealousy in Shakespeare’s play.

Tadeusz Bradecki, who took over directorial duties after the death of Gina Wilkinson, seems to be fully aware of the dramatic potential that the casting of Williams has given him.  Now, for a change, Marchbanks cannot be dismissed simply as deluded fool but rather can be treated a real threat to the Morells’ marriage.  Bradecki knows quite well that a sense of danger only heightens comedy.  Our relief at the end is greater if the threat to it had real power.

As befits the play’s unspoken parallel, Williams creates a far more complex portrait of his characters than one usually finds in a comedy.  At the beginning we sense his complacency and secret pleasure that he is in such demand as a guest speaker even though it takes him away from home almost every evening.  Behind his dislike of his father-in-law Mr. Burgess he suggests that there are many other disagreements besides capitalism versus socialism that the two seem to hold to as the safest argument to choose.  He is no placid clergyman but can be aroused to abrupt physical rage when taunted by Marchbanks--angry that someone so insignificant should be able to disturb his peace of mind, worried that he can’t fathom what attraction such a boy could have for Candida.  He makes his decision to leave the two alone together with a mixture of rage and fear.  Yet, when Candida refers to him as “my boy”, it is all too obvious how dependent he is on her.  It will be a long time before we see such a wide-ranging and finely nuanced Morell as Williams gives us.

Marchbanks is Wade Bogert-O’Brien’s first big role at the Festival and it is a very impressive performance.  Though Marchbanks claims to be “shy”, it seems he means “antisocial” rather than “withdrawn”.  As soon as he is alone with Morell or Morell’s secretary Miss Garnett, he goads them with impertinent personal questions as if trying to see how far he can go before the other loses control.  This Marchbanks is not love-struck in any conventional sense, but rather asserts with menace that his love is more powerful than any Morell can have for his wife.  Bogert-O’Brien matches the dangerous volatility of Marchbanks’ words with the physicality of his performance that finds him flinging himself suddenly into all corner of the room.  In Bradecki’s view, Marchbanks may be a fool but his vehement speech and wild behaviour deliberately provoke more anxiety than laughter.

Claire Jullien is blissfully serene as Candida.  She has no notion that her act of charity has brought a viper into the house, but when she does find out her actions are swift and decisive.  When Morell and Marchbanks ask her at last to chose between them, Jullien makes us understand completely the mixture of anger, frustration and amusement her character feels, wondering what could possibly have happened to have brought her otherwise sensible husband into such doubt.  She infuses her speech on what it means to be a wife to Morell with the deepest affection.

The three comic foils to the main characters are all well cast.  Norman Browning’s brusque, half-muttering, lip-licking Mr. Burgess is the perfect contrast to the uncalculatingly good Morell and wildly romantic Marchbanks.  Krista Colosimo as Miss Garnett is as prissy and unfriendly as Candida is open and generous.  Colosimo’s body language makes is no surprise when we discover later that Garnett nurses a secret passion for her employer.  Graeme Somerville is deliciously funny as the milksop Reverend Lexy Mill, as weak as Morell is strong and as insipid as Marchbanks is passionate.

William Schmuck has designed a set so cosy-looking that you wish you move in.  He has built symbolic features into the otherwise highly realistic set like the child’s chair on one side of the fireplace paired with a rocking chairs on the other.  This picks up the themes of childishness and maturity that run through the play, and Bradecki knows this, making Marchbanks the only one to sit in the child’s seat and Candida the only one to use the rocker.  Schmuck gives Marchbanks a suitable outrageous outfit and clothes Candida in exquisitely beautiful gowns.  Reza Jacobs’ delicate incidental music with its hints of whimsy and melancholy captures just the right mood.  

Bradecki’s clear, extraordinarily detailed direction and Williams’ unusually complex portrayal of Morell make this the most viscerally engaging Candida I’ve seen.  Since many believe that Candida is Shaw’s riposte to Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, the only trick the Festival has missed is in not staging Ibsen’s play in repertory with Shaw’s the same superb cast.  Seeing both together would illuminate them both.  As it is, this Candida will suffice and must be added to the growing list of must-sees at this year’s festival.   

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Nigel Shawn Williams and Claire Jullien. ©2011 Emily Cooper.

For tickets, visit www.shawfest.com.