Lucy Komisar
"A Minister’s Wife" a charming
chamber music version of Shaw's "Candida"
"A Minister's Wife."
Based on the 1898 version of "Candida" by George Bernard
Shaw
Adapted by Austin Pendleton. Conceived and directed by Michael
Halberstam.
Lyrics by Jan Levy Tranen. Music by Joshua Schmidt.
Lincoln Center at Mitzi Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65th Street,
New York, NY.
212-239-6200; http://www.lct.org/.
Opened May 8, 2011; closes June 12, 2011.
Reviewed by Lucy Komisar May 18, 2011.
Michael Halberstam's chamber music version of
Shaw's "Candida" is a charming and exhilarating production
about male-female relations in earlier days of the battle for
women's sexual freedom. The story is adapted by Austin Pendleton
from Shaw's 1898 version of the play, which he revised in 1930,
when post-flapper era so much in society had changed. At the
turn of the century, women were even more psychologically and
materially dependent on their husbands.
 |
| Kate
Fry as Candida, Marc Kudisch as Rev. Morrell. Photo by Paul
Kolnik. |
Halberstam and Pendleton show us a woman who takes charge of
her own emotional life. Candida Morrell (the excellent soprano,
Kate Fry) is a smart woman married to what might appear to be
a progressive man. Rev. James Morrell (the always fine baritone
Marc Kudisch) is a Christian Socialist minister who preaches
to a broad audience. When his secretary tells him the Hoxton
Freedom Group wants him to address them, he declares, "Just
like Anarchists not to know they can't have a parson on Sunday
morning."
He is desperate to see Candida, who has been out of town: "My
Candida’s coming home today!" he sings. And when
she arrives, she vocalizes, "Oh the enchantment, the joys
of home, the joys of wife and motherhood."
A perfect marriage, right? But Morrell is still a man who thinks
his importance trumps the desires and yearnings of those around
him. He is oblivious, for example, that his secretary Miss Proserpine
Garnett (the very strong Liz Baltes) has a crush on him and
is jealous of his wife.
 |
| Kate
Fry as Candida, Bobby Steggert as Marchbanks. Photo by Paul
Kolnik. |
The privileged Candida seems just a bit bored.
Perhaps that is why she doesn't immediately squash the verbal
advances of the infatuated young poet Eugene Marchbanks (an
appealing Bobby Steggert), who Morrell had found sleeping on
an embankment and who, in his early 20s, is 15 years her junior.
Steggert seems a bit younger than I'm used to seeing as the
Marchbanks in Shaw's play, too young to be considered seriously
as a rival to Morrell. There's never a moment when you take
such a liaison seriously.
 |
| Bobby
Steggert as Marchbanks, Marc Kudisch as Rev. Morrell. Photo
by Paul Kolnik. |
Candida says all the right feminist things. As
the Reverend expresses concern about the personal developments,
she recalls it was her father "who taught me to think for
myself." And, "Don't put your trust in my goodness."
Marchbanks also gets into the debate. And when Morell orders
her to choose between him and the poet, she declares, "I
am up for auction it seems. What do you bid, James?"
Since this is Shaw, there are of course other moral challenges.
Candida's father made money from sweatshops.
The plot, in fact, is a little silly, but what makes this production
pulsate is the modern music by Joshua Schmidt, (who people may
remember as the brilliant composer of the "The Adding Machine,"
based on the 1923 Edgar Rice play), the recitative by Jan Levy
Tranen and the voices of the ensemble, especially Fry, Kudisch
and Baltes. In all, quite an elegant Lincoln Center event.
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