Sam Underwood as Marchbanks and Melissa Errico as Candida
(Photo credit: Carol Rosegg)
Of the five plays that Tony Walton has directed and designed for the Irish Repertory Theatre, his new production of Bernard Shaw’s comedy of ideas, Candida, is the most satisfying in both conception and execution. The excellent cast has melded into a convincing family unit, and Walton’s late Victorian setting is a thing of beauty. This charming Candida turns out to be extremely funny, not always a given for drawing room comedies of manners.
The heavy-weight cast includes Broadway stars Melissa Errico who appeared in Walton’s productions of both Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Shaw’s Major Barbara, and Brian Murray, as well as the Irish Rep’s producing director Ciarán O’Reilly, and such up-and-coming featured players as Enter Laughing’s Josh Grisetti and Coram Boy’s Xanthe Elbrick. In the difficult role of 18-year-old poet Eugene Marchbanks, Walton has discovered an accomplished newcomer Sam Underwood who makes this otherworldly, tremendously wise young man totally credible.
Shaw’s comedy is one of his most well-made plays and the plot is to a great extent his take on Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Whereas Ibsen writes a tragedy of a husband who doesn’t understand his wife, Shaw makes a comedy out of the same plot. However Shaw’s Candida has a great deal more self-knowledge than Ibsen’s Nora. Written and set in 1894, Candida takes in St. Dominic’s Parsonage, Victoria Park, in north east London, the home of the Rev. James Morell, a Christian Socialist clergyman of the Church of England, and his wife Candida.
A vigorous and robust man, Morell has found young Marchbanks, an Oxford dropout and a nephew of a peer, sleeping on the Thames embankment. When Morell takes him home with him, his wife Candida mothers Marchbanks, just as if he were one of her own children. This leads to Marchbanks telling Morell that he has fallen in love with Candida and that he has more right to her than her husband. In his masculine jealousy, Morell precipitates a confrontation in which Candida must choose between them.
While the title role is often played as a star turn, Errico plays it like a true member of the Morell family. Radiant when we first see her in her velvet green traveling outfit designed by Walton, she sacrifices nothing by fitting herself into the ensemble. O’Reilly makes the benighted husband who thinks he knows the ways of the world an extremely sympathetic character. Errico and O’Reilly have an easy deportment together suggesting a comfortable couple who have been married for a long.
However, the surprise is Underwood as Marchbanks. The play rises or falls on making this character believable, and very few juveniles are able to accomplish this. Marchbanks must be awkward, youthful, knowing, curious, and naïve. He must be able to recite poetry both in every day life prose as well as traditional verses from books. He must also cut an attractive but boyish figure so that we see what Candida sees in him. Underwood is able to do all of this and more.
Veteran actor and director Brian Murray has been long associated with many period comedies but he is not particularly known for Shavian roles. As Candida’s vulgar and mercenary father Mr. Burgess, Murray takes to this working class role as to the manner born, bringing great charm even to his roguishness. Elbrick makes Proserpine (Prossy) Garnett, Morell’s typist, a working woman with all the late Victorian prejudices – until she tries her first glass of champagne at a victory party. Musical comedy performer Josh Grisetti gives Morell’s curate, the Rev. Alexander (Lexy) Mill many colorful quirks and demonstrates a knack for period comedy.
Walton has designed the impressive Morell drawing room, also used as the reverend’s study, in deep reds and dark woods, evocative of late Victorian interiors, with Persian carpets covering the floor. Richard Pilbrow memorably makes it appear as if the lighting comes from the gas lamps on the walls and in the third act set late in the evening the fireplace casts a warm glow in the darkly lit room. Walton’s attractive costumes for both the men and women are successfully true to their period of high necked dresses for women and three-piece suits for the men completed by long frock coats. Robert-Charles Vallance’s wig and hair design is subtle enough to be appropriate without drawing attention to itself.
The Irish Repertory Theatre’s spirited revival of Candida offers Shavian paradoxes in abundance and witty repartee, as well as a fine ensemble cast to bring this comedy to life. Credit Tony Walton with the polished direction and design. The cast of veteran and rising stars makes this a sparkling entertainment. Aside from the clever talk of ideas and ethics, the hint of a romance between an older woman and a younger man gives the play added spice.
Candida (through April 18)
Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 W. 22nd Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, call 212-727-2737 or http://www.irishrep.org